


Your Dream was My Nightmare

by MellindaHightop, Thedragoninthesnow



Series: Who You Gonna Call? [3]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-07-29 13:05:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 37,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7685704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellindaHightop/pseuds/MellindaHightop, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thedragoninthesnow/pseuds/Thedragoninthesnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Dr. Abby Yates, researcher into the paranormal.”</p>
<p>“Kelly Quinn, chew toy for the dead.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ghost and Twists

All her life Kelly had shit luck.

She was always the one the science experiment blew up on, the one who was only asked out as a joke, the one who’s older siblings wrecked their reputation with teachers meaning she has to start from scratch. And she was the one who was constantly haunted.

The bad luck she could handle.

The ghosts she couldn’t.

Maybe it was the mix of Irish and Scottish blood.

Maybe it was the fact she was the seventh child of two seventh children.

But whatever the reason Kelly was a magnet for ghostly activity and for the things themselves to appear.

When she was little it was fun. Blue glowing people appeared to her nightly and told her ghost stories, an irony she wouldn’t realize until later. Little lights would bob around her and chase her fingers when she made grabs for them. Her parents simply thought she had an overactive imagination and would tease her about her imaginary friends. At school there were also blue glowing people around who would distract her from her kindergarten teacher and get her in trouble, but it was always brushed off as her just not being able to focus.

Until the day she came home with welts on the back of her thighs from a ruler striking her.  
Her parents rang down the school, but no one had any clue what happened. It was an old building so there weren’t any security cameras. Kelly was equally no help, always pointing at a picture of the school’s founder Agatha Manfield as her attacker.

Her parents eventually decided that this meant to was to traumatized by her attack and sent her to a different school.

But it kept happening. Every school had a blue glowing person who distracted Kelly from her lessons, or would physically hurt her. Counseling was no help since Kelly would insist that she was telling the truth about the people.

Eventually her parents decided she was doing it to herself for attention. Despite the marks appearing in manners that no child could reproduce.

It was just easier to blame her then try to listen.

So for the rest of her school years she learned to silence any mention of the blue people despite them being constantly in her life. Kelly learned to pick out which ghosts were going to be nice to her and which weren’t. She also learned that while they can physically touch her, she could also touch them. Which started a lot of fights between her and them.

So the bruises continued to form, but no one seemed to notice them anymore. All six of her brothers learned that they could mess with her and no one would listen.

So for twelve years Kelly suffered in silence, constantly attacked by the physical and supernatural world.

Really then she never understood why her parents seemed so surprised when she left their small Midwest town for New York once she got a full ride into Columbia.

Columbia was filled with annoying little people with little minds, but it’s historical and cultural studies were the best in the country so she sucked it up.

But even halfway across the country her little problem persisted. Whenever she thought no blue floating people would appear they would suddenly be in her face and startle her.

On the upside she was learning the terms she needed to name everything that was happening to her. Kelly wasn’t sure she would call herself a medium, but calling the blue people ‘ghosts’ was better. And she learned that the little lights that would fill up her bedroom at night were called will o’ wisps.

Since she was alone now she also tested to see what might’ve been causing it, and while she had no answers she learned rubber soled shoes kept her from summoning anything more than the wisps so long as she didn’t touch anything in the area.

Despite still being haunted and dealing with angry little ghosts and small minded people Kelly was having a good time in New York. She was on her way to a Masters in Cultural History and had just moved out of her dorm and into her own apartment after landing a well-paying job at an art gallery.

So of course it crashed when her two oldest brothers came, claiming they had moved to New York to find evidence of the paranormal.

That was three months ago and ever since then they would call her up and try to get her to go into a supposedly haunting place with them to see what happens. Kelly knew what would happen. She’d go, whatever was there would either show up and just talk leading to her brothers trying to piss it off to get it to do something cool or it would show up and slam her into a wall.

So for three months she told them to get bent, reminded them how they mocked her for her ghost stories and how they used her bruises as a way to fuck with her and get away with it.

Apparently they weren’t listening since one night after she closed up the gallery they grabbed her and hauled her a house that apparently ghosts chased the family out of.

“I want it on record that I hate both of you and am here against my will.” Kelly said angrily into Mark’s shoulder, the second oldest of her brothers and the one currently carrying her piggyback style to keep her from running. “And I want my shoes back!”

“You’ll just run if we give your shoes back.”

“You know me so well.”

“Shush both of you.” Kelly glared at Simon, the oldest of the boys and the leader of this merry little death trap. “We’re rolling so…” Turning the camera to himself she could see Simon smile to it. “Welcome to another episode of Searching for the Truth. I am Simon Quinn here with my brother Mark and youngest and only sister Kelly. You’re in for a special treat tonight folks since Kelly here has the ability to summon spirits.”

“Yes the amazing ability to be haunted for my entire life, mocked by friends and family until it is financially reasonable for them to listen to me.”

“I’m editing that out.”

Grumbling lowly Kelly settled against her brother’s back and watched as Simon tried to wow an audience that wouldn’t see this till later. She glanced around the room, wondering what would be here once she was set down. From the corner of her eyes she could see some of the wisps bouncing around, waiting for attention.

“Who the hell are you?”

Attention dragged away from the wisps Kelly leaned up and saw Simon talking to a group of woman who had come from upstairs. They were all wearing brown jumpsuits with reflective pieces and carrying….Kelly really didn’t know what it was but it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The leader was a short and stout woman with glasses and deep brown hair who stared at Simon.

“That’s our question buddy. We’re supposed to be here, you’re not.”

“We have a right as journalist to be here.”

“I’m here against my will.” Kelly pipped up, waving when the women looked over at her.

One of the women in the back of the group, a tall black woman with awesome braids, stepped forward and gave Mark an evil look. At this distance Kelly could see a gold necklace with the word ‘Patty’ on it, making her wonder if that was her name or the name of a loved on.

“You’re gonna be putting her down now boy.”

Mark backed up slightly from a woman who was for the first time taller than him, tightening his grip on Kelly’s legs before she snapped at him in Irish that he was hurting her.

“Now now hold it. Kelly’s just trying to start shit. I’m Simon and that’s Mark. We’re her older brothers.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m here willing Simon. I want to go home; I’ve got classes in the morning.”

“Look you can go home as soon as you do whatever it is that brings ghosts out.”

The other women blinked at Kelly as she glared at Simon, the leader stepping forward now and clearing her throat.

“You can summon spirits?”

“I don’t know. All I know is I show up and so do they. Maybe the just like my smell.”

That brought a laugh from her and she held her hand up in offering for a shake.

“Dr. Abby Yates, researcher into the paranormal.”

“Kelly Quinn, chew toy for the dead.” She had to wiggle slightly to shake Abby’s hand over Mark’s shoulder since the man was being no help at all.

Unfortunately her wiggling caused Mark to let go of her legs and she dropped to the floor, wrenching her hand out of Abby’s grip and twisting her ankle from landing badly. As she lay on the ground for a brief moment trying to keep from shouting the light show that was her life started with little wisps bobbing around the group.

Kelly could hear Simon whooping slightly and starting to talk to his camera but her attention was more focused on the throbbing from her ankle as Mark moved out of the way to see why she hadn’t stood back up. The only good thing about that fall was that she wasn’t wearing her heels which would’ve caused her ankle to twist even further. Abby knelt down next to her as Kelly rolled onto her back and stretched her leg out.

“You okay?! Oh man that looked like it hurt.”

“Fine. Used to it. Better my ankle than my wrist.”

“You’re turning grey.”

“Naturally coloring coming too light.”

As Abby helped her sit up Kelly noticed the other three checking what looked like a cotton candy maker. One of them, who was wearing tinted glasses seemed to be looking around excitedly while the taller and thin one with orangey hair looked nervous.

“Abby we’re picking up some weird readings, like angry ghost level.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“What do you mean Patty?”

Kelly looked at the one they called Patty, realizing it was the woman with the necklace.

“History of this place is a mess. Some dude went off and killed his wife just because she spent some time with her brother. Apparently he thought she was gonna leave him. And after that he supposedly pops back up and kills someone else thinking it’s her.”

“You mean my brothers just dragged me into a location with a potentially homicidal ghost?”

There was a beat of silence as Mark and Simon at least looked sheepish and the women looked confused. Kelly struggled to her feet, wincing slightly whenever she put weight on her ankle. Abby helped her up and balanced her, just in time for the telltale blue glow started to appear in the upper hallway.

“Get me out of here Mark.”

“Kel it’s dead. It can’t hurt us.”

“You…it can’t hurt _you_.”

At her words Patty quickly bent down and picked her up, clutching Kelly to her chest just as the ghost fully formed and came into sight. Kelly gave a few muttered curses when it was indeed the husband still looking to kill his wife instead of the wife.

At the sight of him Mark and Simon both took off running out the front door, leaving Kelly in Patty’s arms and staring down the ghost.

“Light em up!” Came the order from Abby and three beams of light hit the ghost in the chest. “Patty keep Kelly away from that thing.”

“No problem here baby but you sure you won’t need me?”

“We got it. We got it.”

The ghost fought the beams, but the three women caroled him near a weird metal container that opened up and sucked the ghost inside. It was quiet for a moment and the only sound was a small hissing from the container.

“Shit!”

Kelly’s sudden shout caused all of the women to jump.

“What?”

“Simon still has my shoes.”


	2. Troubled Sketches and Memories

The next day Kelly had difficulty concentrating in class. When questioned about it she just told her teachers that her ankle was bothering her and they let her unusual lapse in attention slide.

In truth she was thinking back to last night.

After dealing with the ghost the rest of the group introduced themselves. Erin Gilbert, whose name sounded familiar, and Holtzmann who didn’t give a first name. Patty helped get her out to their car, which Kelly was damned sure was a hearse in its first life, and let her get settled into the passenger seat as the others put their equipment back in place. Abby got into the driver’s seat and the group headed off to wherever they were taking her.

A firehouse was the last place she thought she’d be going.

“I’m gonna take her back to her house.” Abby said, turning in her seat so she could look at the others in the back. “Ya’ll head on in.”

The other three nodded and got out of the hearse, getting the equipment from the back as Kelly and Abby sat in the car quietly.

“Do you know how to get back to your home from here?”

“Yeah. Just head straight and take the next left. I’ll direct from there.”

Abby nodded and headed off, and for a while the only conversation was Kelly pointing out another direction she had to take. About halfway there though Abby apparently decided to break the silence.

“So….why does it happen?”

“I don’t know.” Kelly didn’t need to ask what she meant. “It’s been like this my entire life.”

“You’ve been haunted your entire life?!”

“Yeah. Don’t remember when it started.”

“Damn…you gotta talk to Erin. She got haunted once but that was for like a year. Can’t imagine dealing with that your entire life.”

“Hm. Right at this light.”

“Guessing you don’t like talking about it huh?”

“Did Erin?”

The car was silent for a tense moment.

“That was rude…I’m sorry. It’s just…difficult.” Kelly said, tugging at her shirt sleeve in nervousness.

“Nah I understand.”

“Left at the light and right into my apartment’s parking lot.”

Abby followed her instructions and parked in front of the door. The night guard came out to tell her to shove off until Kelly poked her head out the window.

“Ricky mind giving me a hand? I twisted my ankle.”

Quickly coming over to the door Ricky reached in and helped Kelly hobble out of the car. Abby leaned over from the driver’s seat and smiled at her.

“You should come by the firehouse sometime Kelly. I’d love to talk to you about your stories.”

Kelly nodded slightly and shut the door behind her as Ricky helped her limp to her apartment. Thankfully she had gotten a room on the first floor otherwise that would’ve been hell.

When she woke up she bound her ankle up in a compression and hobbled herself to class, hoping her classmates would ignore her so she could focus on her thoughts. Then again Kelly had shit luck, so why should today be different?

“Hey Leprechaun!” Six older brothers and a lifetime of ghosts and one is much harder to startle no matter how much someone tried. So she didn’t even flinch when books slammed onto her desk and pulled her out of her thoughts.

“What Jeremy?”

Jeremy Clarkson was in her English Literature class, but while she was going for her Masters in Cultural History and was taking English Lit as a busy class Jeremy was going into it for his BA. He also had this fascination with calling her every slang he could come across for Irish and Scottish in hopes of riling her up so he could make a crack about her turning as red as her hair.

“You’ve been a space cadet all day” Jeremy leaned against her desk and ignored her trying to mentally will him to leave.

“Might have something to do with my ankle feeling like hell.” Kelly had borrowed a box from the teacher to elevate her ankle and it was currently near Jeremy’s leg.

“Maybe.”

Kelly sighed softly before clicking her pen a few times. “Does the name Erin Gilbert sound familiar to you?”

“Professor Gilbert? The crazy?”

“Hm?”

Jeremy pulled his phone out and clicked around for a few minutes, looking for something. Kelly sighed and closed her notebook, wishing he had just told her whatever it was. He finally handed her his phone and she watched a video that involved three of the women she met the night before. When Gertrude appeared on the screen she tensed up, remembering the only time she ever set foot in the manor and heard the woman cursing at her behind the door. Watching Erin get slimed, something she never knew they could do, and then freak out about ghosts being real reminded her of what Abby said.

Erin and Kelly both had been haunted, and hearing Erin say ‘I’m not crazy’ reminded Kelly of her shouting the same thing to her parents and counselors when they suggested medication or experimental therapies.

“What happened?”

“She got canned. I mean come on Paddy she was shouting ‘Ghost are real’ and expected to keep her job.”

“Hm.” Handing his phone back over she waved him to go away, leaning back in her chair and twisting a deep auburn curl around her finger. She wondered how Erin would handle learning she went to the school that unfairly fired her. Or the entire team hearing her stories and learning just how messed up her life was.

Well there was always a way to find out.

~~~

Kelly felt a little silly walking into the firehouse with a limp and her bag that was filled with her journals and sketch books of the ghosts she dealt with. The group had three women with their doctorates, they’d want proof to back up her claims and while she hadn’t touched these books in years they held everything she dealt with.

What looked like a living Ken doll was seated at a desk near the door, busy looking over a folder full of headshots…. of himself…. Shirtless….

Kelly decided for her own sanity to bypass his desk.

Heading up the stairs was a trail, but she had been hurt by these things before and wasn’t gonna let a little limp slow her down. One the second floor there was a mad scientist’s wet dream and she couldn’t help a small shiver at some of the equipment.

“Hey baby!”

Looking over Kelly gave a small smile at seeing Patty waving her into a mini reading room near one of the windows.

“Surprised to see you here girl.”

“Abby said to swing by. To uh…talk about last night.”

“I got you. Come on the girls are up on the roof having an argument.”

Following after the woman Kelly shrugged her bag higher as they stepped back into the open air of New York.

“Yo Abby! Kelly’s here!”

“Hey Kelly! Come sit down with us.”

Apparently for them an argument involved sitting down and drinking a beer with each other. Sounded like Kelly’s type of argument. Taking a seat near Abby she opened up her bag and pulled out the first journal and sketchbook.

“So…about last night.”

“Yeah about that.” Holtzmann laughed from where she was lounging on the ground of the roof. “I could hear your brothers up the hall. Apparently you summon spirits?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been haunted my entire life.”

“Was there ever a time you weren’t?” Erin seemed concerned when she asked.

“No. I…my oldest memories involve some blue person getting me in trouble.”

Flipping the sketchbook open there were various scribbles of a child’s hand trying to recreate what they were seeing.

“When I was in kindergarten I learned they could touch me. Like physically pull me or leave bruises. In high school I figured out that I could hurt them back.”

“How?”

“There was a male ghost in the girl’s locker room who tried to mess with me and I kicked up and caught him hard enough between the legs.”

That got a lot of laughter from the group of women, getting Kelly to smile slightly. It hadn’t been funny when it happened, but looking back at it now she could laugh at herself.

“Still the fact you can apparently manifest spirits and physically interact with them in amazing.” Abby said, looking over Kelly’s childish drawings of the ghosts who frequented her life. “Do they always take on a physical form or are they usually just wisps?”

“Wisps. Which don’t usually bother me. It’s the fully formed and angry ones that annoy me.”

“Annoy is a good term for it.” Kelly smiled again when Abby laughed, pushing at her shoulder in a tease.

“Have you learned to stop it? At all?” Erin leaned forward, taking her own look at the sketch book.

“Rubber soled shoes in areas with nasty things hiding. It’s why I was so annoyed last night when Simon took my shoes with him when he ran.”

“And it works?”

“So long as I don’t touch anything yeah. I’ll still get the wisps but nothing fully formed.”

“Can I run tests on you?”

“Tests?!” Kelly couldn’t help the almost fearful tone her voice took as she stared at Abby.

“Nothing bad! Just measurements and readings. Maybe learn why the ghosts are attracted to you! From the sounds of it you're like this walking ion battery for ghosts so maybe finding a way to dampen that will help.”

Kelly considered the point for a moment, one hand coming up so she could chew on the pinkie nail in thought.

“Will it hurt?”

“I doubt it. And if it does Patty will hit me for you.”

“Damn right I will.”


	3. Tests and Texts

“Okay Kelly, try to think happy thoughts.”

“I have wires attached to my head and fingers. There are no happy thoughts.”

After yesterday’s talk Kelly agreed to come by for some tests to see what may be going on. She didn’t have classes or work today thanks to her scheduling both to be off at the same time once a week. Abby was the only one there at the moment and quickly got her situated in a chair that was seated on a rubber mat. She explained it was to keep anything that might react to Kelly from waking up during the tests. Abby also had Kelly take her shoes off since the soles were rubber and would interfere in the tests.

So now she was seated as calmly as she could with wires connecting her to various equipment that Abby was busy turning on and tuning.

“Then tell me about your first ghost while I get these things ready.”

“Agatha Manfield. She created the school my kindergarten class was held in. Angry little bitch who apparently wasn’t told times had changed and little girls were allowed to wear shorts.”

Abby paused and looked over at her with wide eyes as Kelly shrugged.

“I learned that day that rulers used to be made out of really bendy wood and it was favored because you’d get two hits for the price of one swing when the ruler snapped back on the kid.”

“Oh hell. What’d your parents do?”

“At first they tried to figure out who hurt me. Then they decided my mind couldn’t handle the trauma of having been assaulted and that’s why I kept pointing at the founder of the school as my attacker so they moved me to a different school.”

“Didn’t help I’m guessing?”

“You know that song that goes 'Second verse, same as the first'? That was my entire school career.”

Abby laughed softly and finished fiddling with the machines. Some of them gave a slight beeping sound as the worked while others were silent. Kelly glanced over at the machines but couldn’t make heads or tails of any of them beyond one she remembered from her brother Scott’s hospital visit as a heart monitor and figured that one was connected to the wire on her middle finger.

“Got any theories of your own why this happens?”

“I’m of Irish and Scottish descent. Or it could be that both my mom and dad have six older siblings and I have six older brothers making me the seventh child of a seventh child.”

“I thought that involved vampires or something?”

“Seventh son of a seventh son in some folklore is said to be a vampire or witch yes, but since my dad has six sisters and my mom has a mix of brothers and sisters I figured whatever was at work went wonky and landed me with the ghost thing.”

“What about your brothers? Anything off about them?”

“Simon is an ass, Mark has no spine, Cormac and Gavin are identical twins which says it all, Emmet is dumber than a box of rocks and Scott is…well Scott is the only sane one in the family.”

“So….that night was a new thing for them?”

“Simon found out people will watch anything and decided to use my weirdness to rake in the cash. Mark joined him because Simon told him to.”

Abby sighed something that Kelly couldn’t hear but went back to fiddling with the machines. After staring at them for a few moments she started writing down whatever it was they were showing and nodded to herself.

“Alright I’ve got the base line. Now just stand up slowly and step off of the mat.”

“If something blows up because of this will I have to pay for it?”

“Nah.”

Moving carefully Kelly stepped off of the mat. As soon as both of her bare feet were flat on the ground the machines started to beep faster and Abby quickly started checking all of them over. She wrote fast to keep up with the information and Kelly watched her in an odd fascination. The only time she ever saw someone write that fast was during last year’s finals and three of her classmates were only halfway through the test when the Professor called the five minute warning.

Abby was focused on her writing and Kelly was focused on Abby so neither of them noticed when Erin and Holtzmann walked in.

“What cookin? Or is that Kelly making the noise?” Holtzmann asked as she wandered over to her work bench.

“Her baseline showed minor electrical discharge happening even when she was grounded on the rubber mat. Which would explain why she still manifests wisps. But as soon as she got off the mat everything went nuts. I know I called her a battery last night but from these readings I’m changing it.” Abby motioned for Kelly to sit back down as she spoke to the others, eyes still pinned on the machines as they quieted down when Kelly was back on the rubber.

“What do you think it is?” Erin came over to Abby’s side and looked over the numbers with her, eyebrows raising at what Kelly guessed was a jump in them. Math and Science were never her strong subjects so she didn’t know what they were seeing.

“From these numbers I’m guessing she’s like a conductor. When she’s grounded she starts charging the air around her. From the way she manifest ghosts I’m guessing the energy she charges is the same electrical charge as the ghosts. Meaning any activity they already do gets magnified.”

“Translation for the History major in the classroom?”

“I didn’t realize Patty was back” Erin said before looking around and then glancing back at Kelly. “Oh you meant you.”

“Sorry Kelly.” Abby said, turning off the machines and coming over to help Kelly start pulling the wires off. “Basically you’re on the same frequency of the metaphysical plane which allows you to interact with spirits. I’m not sure how to dampen it just yet, but this is still really fascinating stuff.”

“Mm.” Leaning forward Kelly grabbed her shoes and started to pull them on.

“I mean interaction on that level is something we can’t do. Potentially you could get them to follow you and we could do a more thorough study of spirits.”

“Last time I had a peaceful interaction with a ghost he was a convicted mass murder in his lifetime who helped me write the paper that got me a full ride into college.”

That got a wave of silence and three stares as Kelly stood up from her seat.

“I asked, he helped.” Kelly said with a shrug. “He was relatively calm when he talked so long as I didn’t try to question why he did it.”

“Still…that was a risk.” Erin now watched her with wide eyes as if she was gonna drop any second.

“Eh. I figured if they wanted me dead it would’ve happened years before that point.” Kelly said with a shrug, stepping off of the mat again and wrapping her arms around her waist.

“Well…anyway.” Abby clearly felt the subject needed to be changed. “This is really good information and will definitely help us figure out a way to help you Kelly.” Walking over to Holtzmann she handed the engineer the numbers. “And hell Holtz if we’re smart like we usually are maybe we can use Kelly’s electrical read out to build something to keep ghosts from hiding.”

“Like massive magnet to haul their spooky asses out. Nice.”

Kelly raised an eyebrow and wandered over to the workbench as well, taking in the various pieces of…things that Holtzmann had laid out. Some looked evil and others looked half finished. The magpie part of her brain that always snapped to wherever a wisp was floating wanted to poke at them, but the more reasonable part pointed out that if these things hurt ghosts there was a chance it could hurt her. Better to keep her hands to herself….especially around the bear trap looking thing.

“Do you trap all the ghosts?”

“Most of them yeah.” Abby turned to look at her as they spoke. “When we get called usually it’s because the spirit has decided to make itself a mess. They don’t listen to us.”

“Never listened to me either. Granted I stopped trying to reason with them in the sixth grade. I think it’s the whole ‘dead’ thing. They’re not willing to listen.” Kelly said as she pushed her hair away from her face. The red curls were a constant mess and she lost many brushes trying to tame it down. It was probably why when she found herself looking for a pet she got two short haired cats instead of anything she needed to groom. Kelly spent enough time brushing her own mane out, she didn’t have the time to brush them out at well.

“Ain’t that the truth. So today’s test went well but this was just to get information on what could possibly be causing the manifestation. I still would like it if you came by a few other times in order to get more testing done. I figure that we can handle doing a baseline test on one of use to see what electrical discharge is normal for people. Plus you haven’t told me all your stories and you and Erin still need to talk about your experiences.” Abby said, patting Kelly on the arm and smiling to her. Kelly smiled softly as well and nodded.

“And I’m gonna wanna run some tests to see if I can dampen that mess of yours.” Holtzmann laughed, dropping yellow tinted goggles in front of her eyes.

“For some reason that doesn’t make me feel comfortable.”

“Ah you’ll get over it” Kelly wondered if that was supposed to comfort her as Holtzmann fired up a blowtorch and started getting to work on one of the many projects on her workbench.

“Riiight.”

Abby laughed and tugged on Kelly’s arm to lead her away and over to another desk. “Here. Give me a call whenever you’ve got another free day to swing by again.” As she spoke she wrote down her number on a scrap piece of paper and handed it over.

Kelly pulled her cell out and quickly typed it into her contacts, sending Abby a text a moment later. “There’s mine.”

“She’s gonna be sending you random ass texts now!” Holtzmann called with a laugh.

“Holtz!”

“Go for it. About time I started using the unlimited texts I pay for. But now I gotta get home otherwise my cats will break something out of boredom.”

With that Kelly waved bye to the group and headed out. There was a bus that stopped by that would get her to her apartment so she sat at the bus stop waiting for it. After a few moment her cell started buzzing and she pulled from her pocket and tapped the messenger open.

_‘Just a heads up you may want to avoid the internet for a little’_

Kelly raised an eyebrow at the text from Abby and quickly typed out

_‘Why?’_

_‘Your brothers posted the video from that night’_

“I’m going to kill them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently I posted this without any summary. *hits head against wall* Bad author!


	4. Old Arguments and New Lights

_‘I want my shoes back, that video taken down, and you two the hell out of New York before I show you the meaning of pain.’_

Kelly sent that text to both Simon and Mark an hour ago when she got on the bus home. She hadn’t been surprised by that so once she got home she hopped into a shower to help calm herself down before she sent more texts to them and escalated the situation. Once she was clean and a little calmer she sat on her couch wrapped in her towel as she carefully brushed out her hair. Since it was a thick mess and curly she kept it cut just to her chin, but that was only noticeable when she had it completely wet like now. Her wide tooth comb was the only one that ever survived going through her hair and probably because she only used it when her hair was wet.

As she brushed her hair her two pitch black Oriental Shorthairs came careening out from wherever they were hiding, one slamming head first into the wall that separated her kitchen from her living room as the other skidded on the laminated floor and slammed into her front door. Sighing softly Kelly made a small tutting sound to bring the two cats over to her. Irusan and Kellas were brothers she bought from the next door neighbor when their mother Daisy got pregnant from a stud. Daisy had two more kittens then her owner expected so she offered the two boys to Kelly at a lower price than what she planned on charging for their siblings.  
That was a year ago and the two were still in kitten mode.

Kellas quickly jumped into her lap, uncaring of her wet skin or dripping hair, while Irusan settled on one of the pillows on the couch and blinked at her. The two were always curious and always at her feet, but Kellas preferred being right in the middle of the action while Irusan would find a good spot to watch.

Sighing softly Kelly went back to brushing her hair just in time for someone to start knocking on her door. Grumbling to herself she stood up and tightened the towel around herself before she opened her door slightly. Standing on the other side was Mark, holding up her shoes from the night before as a peace offering. With a low groan she opened the door to him and went back to her couch.

“Come on Kel, I don’t need to see you like this.”

“Deal with it Marcas. I’m not getting dressed.” She only referred to her brother by his first name when she was pissed. Sitting down again she returned to carefully brushing her curls out so they wouldn’t knot up again once her hair was dry. Kelly and Scott were the two blessed with the thick curls while the other five had thin curls that didn’t require extra work to make look good.

Mark took a seat on the floor across from her, the coffee table between them to make sure she couldn’t kick him.

“Kels….I’m sorry.”

“For which bit?”

From the confused and almost startled expression on his face that hadn’t been what Mark expected to hear.

“What?”

“Which bit? The following me to New York? The accosting me for three months to get me to do something I said no to? The grabbing me outside of work and dragging me to a haunted home? Dropping me and leaving me there? Or for the almost thirty years of unending torture I endured at your hands and the hands of your friends?”

Mark’s face was red by the end of her rant, but Kelly was more focused on finishing brushing her hair.

“The not believing you about ghosts bit.”

“That wasn’t on the list.”

“It should’ve been.”

“Mark I came to terms with the fact only I could see them years ago. I was never upset about people not believing me about them.” Kelly said with a sigh, finishing her hair and settling back against the couch. “What upset me were the years of abuse and therapy I suffered. What pissed me off was you and everyone but Scott telling your friends that I had to go to a group home for a while after scaring my counselor or the fact I was in therapy every day after school.”

Mark winced away from her as her voice got heated though Kelly made no move to get up from her reclined position on the couch. Kellas jumped back into her lap and nuzzled under her hand while Irusan picked up the mood between them and was lowly growling at Mark from his position on a pillow.

“So uh….you got cats.”

“Irusan and Kellas.”

“I see.” Mark nodded slightly before leaning back away from his sister. “Kelly….you know everyone misses you right? I mean before Simon and I got up here the only person from the family you talked to was Scott. And that was just a text once a month to show you were still alive. You just up and disappeared.”

“Do I need to reiterate the years of abuse that only Scott never took part in?”

Mark sighed softly and ran his hand through his hair. “Nah I got that. You gotta remember Kelly we were just kids.”

“Scott is the only one closest to me in age. Simon and you were almost out of grade school when I was born. You had time to learn.”

“Am I ever gonna win an argument with you?”

“I argue with dead people.”

“Creepy.”

Mark stayed for a while more before leaving with a promise he’d take the video down. Sighing softly Kelly locked the door behind him and headed to her bedroom to get dressed. Changing into her night clothes Kelly sat on her bed and looked at her palms.

It was true. She hadn’t told anyone that she got accepted into Columbia. Months of moving her things in secret to her dorm, dealing with finances herself, thanking the gods she turned eighteen during the school year so she could just run and not look back.

All she left behind was her old mattress and a note pinned to it saying she was leaving. No forwarding address and no mention that she was going to college.

Kelly didn’t text Scott until half a year after she got settled into college life and all it was was a short message saying she was in college and alive.

After that she kept her texts limited and only responded to Scott’s, ignoring her parents and other brothers as they tried to contact her. It was childish but Kelly felt after a good chunk of her life was spent on their whims it was only fair that now she got to do whatever the hell she wanted.

Even if they included ignoring her family.

Shaking her head to get the thoughts out she stood back up and went out to turn the lights off and fill up the food and water dishes of her little monsters. Grabbing her cell she went back to her room and laid on the bed scrolling through her photos and apps. In the years since she left she had made a few friends, though none close enough to talk about her issues with. They got the run down that she disliked her family for personal reasons and that was it. They didn’t ask questions though since it was clear from her tone Kelly wasn’t gonna answer them.

Setting her phone aside Kelly got up and pulled her blankets down before turning off her bedroom lights. In the dark she got back into bed and heard the cats careen in and find their favorite spots in the room. A few little wisps popped brighter into view now that the lights were out and bobbed around her. Feeling a bit weird now that she knew someone out there fully believed her she snapped a few pictures of them and sent them to Abby in a text.

_‘My own personal night lights.’_

It was a silly thing to do, but she was feeling out how…weird she could get with the Ghostbuster group. Putting the phone aside again she curled into her blankets, watching the bobbing of the lights to lull her into sleep. Just before she dropped off her phone buzzed gently and she picked it up again, pulling up a response from Abby.

_‘Just what every growing kid needs. Bet you were never afraid of the dark.’_

It was strange to laugh about something that had been tormenting her for years, but Abby was right. Despite knowing ghosts could touch her Kelly never feared the night since the wisps would light up and show her what was around her. It was probably why she always favored them over the full manifestations.

_‘There’s only three here. It’s why I rent the place.’_

_‘You did not walk around the apartment barefoot when you were looking at it.’_

_‘Of course not! I just touched the wall.’_

The next text from Abby was just a series of laughing smiles which causes Kelly to laugh a little. Yawning again she texted a _‘Night’_ to Abby so the woman didn’t think she was ignoring her and set the phone away. Rolling onto her stomach Kelly grunted slightly when one of the cats jumped onto her back and made himself home there. The other apparently decided to stay where he was because she felt no other body join the first.

Relaxing into her bed and drifting off again Kelly found that for the first time in a long while she was actually looking forward to going to talk to someone about the ghosts she saw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad to see this picking up,lol. Yeah it's gonna be a slow progression, but it'll be a ride all the way


	5. Second Round, Second Talks

It took a couple days, another threat, and a phone call that ended in a screaming match before Simon finally brought the video down. Thankfully his web show didn’t generate enough views for a lot of people to have seen it.

If they had posted it on youtube she may have been in trouble.

During that time she had classes and work so she wasn’t able to go to the firehouse to do more tests, limiting her interaction with Abby and the others to texts. The rest of the girls were also given her number and she would text with them during truly boring classes.

Expect for Patty who was also texted with during her main classes for answers her teachers were asking her. The woman was a treasure trove of New York knowledge.

When her next day off from work and school rolled around she headed back to the firehouse, once more bypassing the receptionist. She learned during her last visit that his name was Kevin and that he was about as dumb as her brother Emmet. Kelly was half tempted to give him Emmet’s number to see what happened, but the idea of introducing dumb to dumber caused her to shiver. Heading up the stairs she noticed Holtzmann working on the cotton candy spinner again.

“What exactly is that?” Kelly asked as she set her bag down on the chair that was set up on the rubber mat again.

“P.K.E meter.”

Kelly gave the scientist a bland look but Holtzmann didn’t look up to see it. Abby wandered out of another room and noticed the two of them.

“Hey Kelly, ready for round two?”

“What’s Holtzmann working on?”

Abby laughed and wheeled out a couple of machines. “It’s a new P.K.E meter.”

Switching her bland look from Holtzmann to Abby just got another laugh.

“P.K.E is spectral energy. The meter helps us identify where a ghost is and how intense it can be. Holtz is making another one just in case the first breaks.”

Kelly nodded at that since it made sense. Abby got the first one out and came over to her, turning it on. It didn’t react much until Abby was also standing on the rubber mat with her. It lit up and started spinning lazily, but nowhere near the level it had at the house. Motioning her to follow Abby stepped off the mat and once Kelly kicked her shoes off she followed after. Once against as soon as her feet were off the mat the meter started going mad and spinning. Abby made a small sound as she checked it over before turning it off.

“Well that was weird.”

“Hm?”

“It definitely registered the energy you spike, but it wasn’t able to key into you.”

“Maybe because I’m not dead?”

That got a considering noise from Abby as she went to the machines and turned them on.

“Another round of measurements? I thought that was last week.”

“That was just a baseline. Holtz and I were looking over the numbers and realized we need a period of thirty minutes of your energy read out in order to properly build a beacon for the ghosts.” Abby unfurled the wires and motioned for Kelly to get back on the mat. Once Kelly was settled on the chair again Abby hooked up the connectors to her head and fingers again. “Otherwise we’re just gonna have to drag you around with us.”

“I’d like to think you would give me a choice beforehand.” Kelly said, wiggling her fingers and the wires.

“Eh I was figuring we could use the beacon in areas with suspected violent deaths or murders and you in places where there’s a chance you could talk the ghost out of its business.”

Kelly raised an eyebrow at that, sighing softly. At least there was a plan to keep her out of areas that could be harmful for her. “So what do you need me to do?”

“Just move the chair off of the mat and settle in for a while. Did you bring anything to keep you busy?”

“My sketch book. I finished my school work yesterday.” As she spoke Kelly stepped off of the mat and took the chair with it. The machines beeped behind her but she ignored them as she dug through her bag for an empty sketchbook. The only one had several sketches in it so she flipped to an empty page and grabbed her pencil. Settling into the seat again she started tracing out another picture.

“Huh. I knew you had some sketches when you were a kid. I didn’t realize you kept at it.” Abby came around to look over her shoulder as she traced, leaning on the back of her chair.

“Yeah. One of my therapists noticed I was sketching and suggested I take classes in it. Apparently it was supposed to give me something else to do other than hurt myself or talk about ghosts.”

“Hurt yourself? What?” Holtzmann’s head snapped up at her sentence and Kelly tipped her head back to look at her.

“Since no one believed me about the ghosts whenever one of them hurt or bruised me my parents would blame me and say I was doing it to myself. How a second grader bends enough to put a man sized handprint on her upper arm I don’t know.” Tipping her head back to normal Kelly shrugged. “The classes didn’t help stop me talking or getting hurt, but I did find a hobby. The rest of the sketch books have the ghosts I’ve dealt with in them.”

Abby went into her bag and pulled out one of the books, flipping through the portraits of the various ghosts she dealt with. Since coming to New York Kelly expanded her skills from just portraits to include landscapes, but those were all in the sketch book in her hand. The rest of them only had a portrait of the ghost along with whatever details she could glean from them written on the back of their drawing.

“These are incredible Kelly. Did you ever think about going full time with this?” Kelly looked up from her tracing and noticed Abby had settled on a drawing of the late Belle Star.

“I wanted to, but since I was mostly self-taught after my parents yanked from the classes I focused solely on the portraits. When I applied to an art school first they told me to contact them in a couple years after I learned to do something more than portraits. Fair enough I suppose.” Kelly shrugged again, still working on her drawing. “So I went with plan B.”

“What was-Oh hey Erin!”

Erin waved at them and wandered over to check the machines herself.

“So what was plan B?” Abby asked as she tucked the sketch book back into Kelly’s bag.

“Major in History while minoring in Culture. I figured if I couldn’t tell _why_ they were haunting me I could at least find out the ‘who’ and ‘what’ since if ghosts are real then there’s a lot of other shit out there that might be real.”

“Makes sense. Where do you go?”

“…Columbia University.”

There was a tense pause as Kelly looked up and gave Erin a sheepish look.

“I saw the video. It’s bullshit that they fired you. And Gertrude was a bitch.”

“You’ve spoken I assume.” Erin gave her a tense smile as she spoke.

“As much as one can when surrounded by people and listening to the bitch behind the door screaming that you’re sullying her house for being a Mick” Kelly shrugged slightly before returning to her sketch.

“Why were you even there? I mean you kinda…” Abby waved a hand to the machines.

“It was my freshman year of college and one of my core teachers wanted us to do a report on a location in New York. He handed them out and I got stuck with the Manor. I was there for thirty minutes having to listen to Gertrude and try to research for my paper.”

“What fun.” Abby’s droll tone got a laugh out of Kelly.

Erin grabbed a second chair and sat in front of Kelly, watching her draw for a while before taking a breath.

“What….how did your family react?”

“With disagreement and a lot of therapy. I got bounced around a lot because I was never ‘fixed’ in their eyes. While I wouldn’t talk about it to them my mom would search my room and find the drawings or journals I had written.”

“She searched your room?!”

“I was ‘sick’ so I didn’t have rights to privacy. So I would be moved off to a new therapist in the hopes this one would be able to get me to knock it off. One sent me to a group home when I was in the second grade.”

“Why?”

“His mom was haunting him and he walked in when I was having a conversation with her. He didn’t believe me at first until I spoke to him about their last conversation. Apparently he didn’t like me ‘scaring’ him like that. I was at the home for a couple weeks.”

“And?”

“Three more ghosts decided to mess with me and instead of me getting blamed the group home mom did and the place went under investigation and I got sent back home.”

“I see.” Erin shifted in her chair and sighed. “I had years of therapy, but they ended when I was in high school since I met Abby and my parents decided it was a sign I was better. But I was never hurt by my haunting or taken away from my family.”

“Families react to things differently. Mine wanted me fixed, not better.” Kelly sighed and put her sketchbook in her lap, giving Erin a weak smile. “But hey. We’re both being proven right.”

“Yep.” Erin’s smile grew slightly at the reminder they were right. “It’s nice to be right for once”

“Oh yeah.”


	6. Lab rats shouldn't drink

Kelly repeated the pattern of going and getting tests done at the firehouse the next week, sitting on the chair as Abby and Holtzmann gathered the data needed to recreate her abilities. Both always seemed excited when the numbers remained consistent, which Kelly put down to meaning it would be easier to work. Her brothers avoided her like the plague, but she figured that was mostly because she showed off the temper she never bothered controlling.

When one is constantly having their buttons pushed, one learned the benefit of a hair trigger temper.

Sighing softly Kelly stood from her desk at work and popped her back. She had landed a position as a receptionist at an art gallery and worked the late shift. For the most part she just sat at the desk and did her school work since people rarely came into the gallery later in the day, but the owner kept it open just in case. The only time she really had to focus was during gallery events, and one was coming up soon. Smoothing her skirt down she walked away from her desk to turn the front lights off, signaling closing time for the rest of the staff.

Despite her love of all things cotton Kelly dressed professionally for her job; pencil skirt, heels and a button up blouse with her hair as tame as she could get it. The heels were probably why her brothers had been able to grab her outside of work, while she could walk in them she couldn’t run. Heading back to her desk she started to clean her work up when her phone beeped. Opening the messenger app she raised an eyebrow at a text from Abby.

_‘You free?’_

_‘Getting off work in twenty. Need something?’_

There was a brief pause in the conversation so Kelly took the time to gather up her stuff and clean up her desk for the morning receptionist. When her phone beeped again she picked it back up.

_‘Hungry?’_

Kelly blinked at that for a moment before answering.

_‘Could go for some food. Why?’_

_‘Cuz I’m here alone and just ordered a shit ton of Chinese out of habit.’_

That got a laugh from Kelly and she quickly sent off a confirmation before she finished closing down for the night. Once she was done she headed off, catching a bus she knew would take her at least a block from the firehouse. She was still dressed in her work clothes, but Kelly knew herself and knew that if she went home to change she probably wouldn’t leave the apartment again. Sighing softly at the fact the door hadn’t been locked she locked it behind her when she entered.

“You know leaving the door unlocked at night isn’t safe right?” Kelly called out as she headed up the stairs. Coming onto the second floor she saw Abby still taking the food out of bags.

“Not like there’s anyone skulking around here. We’re the scariest thing in the neighborhood.” Abby laughed as she motioned for Kelly to sit down, not looking up from where she was sorting out the food.

Kelly dropped into a wheelie chair and pushed across the floor to the table Abby was at. That finally got the woman to look up and she seemed surprised at Kelly’s appearance.

“Huh, you were wearing clothes like that when we first met.”

“My brothers grabbed me outside the art gallery I work at.”

“Ah…. wait are all your shoes rubber soled? Even the heels?”

“My boss adores me for being one of the few girls who don’t click as they walk.”

Abby laughed softly and handed Kelly a container of wonton soup and a spoon. Settling more into her chair Kelly popped the container open and started to eat as Abby got her own container and sat down across from her. The two ate in silence for a moment before Abby got up again and went to a mini fridge near her own work table. Pulling out two cans of beer she tossed one to Kelly.

“Hope you’re not a light weight.”

“I’m Irish and Scottish. I’m naturally drunk.” Kelly laughed softly, taking the can and popping it open. She wasn’t as heavy a drinker as some thought, but during high school she snuck a lot of alcohol away from her parents in order to get through the days. Since coming to New York she noticed a decline in how much she drank which was probably for the best. Both for her health and for her temper.

Abby settled into her chair again and the room once more lapsed into silence. But Kelly noticed it was a comfortable one, not a tense silence she often took with her therapist as she stared at the clock willing it to count down faster. During an English assignment in high school she was asked to describe ‘an eternity’ and she answered in a rather poetic way about staring at a clock that you were sure the batteries were dying in.

“Soo…why did you order so much food? Don’t say habit, this is not enough for the group.”

Abby shrugged slightly as she dug back into her soup. “I got the feeling the last time you were here that we had been treating you like a lab rat.”

“I’m used to it.”

“Yeah but you shouldn’t be used to it. And Holtz and I shouldn’t be encouraging it. So this is my way of apologizing for doing it.”

Kelly shrugged slightly as she ate one of the wontons in her soup. “I’m used to being prodded at Abby. At least you and Holtzmann are prodding a new area and not the same area that’s got enough bruise marks.” Kelly pointed out, tapping the handle of her spoon against her forehead. “My brain is done being poked at. So my body is taking the punishment now. Plus the wires aren’t the scary type.”

“Scary type?”

“Electroshock therapy and lobotomy came up as a way to ‘fix’ me.” Kelly said, sighing and taking a deep drink from her beer. “It’s when I decided to take off running. If my parents wanted to consider that type of stuff for me I wasn’t gonna stick around for their answer.”

Abby had paled at the idea of that happening to her, but Kelly shrugged slightly. She had gotten used to the fact her parents were ready to turn her into a pretty vegetable if it meant they could pretend she had never been any different. The only reason she even realized what they were thinking was because she had overheard their conversation with her last therapist. The man was more willing to ruin Kelly if it meant ‘fixing’ her. He apparently didn’t want her to ruin his record of being able to cure people.

“All that because you could see and manifest ghosts?”

“Part of it.”

“Part?”

Kelly shrugged and blushed slightly, sucking on her spoon for a moment. “High school brought about a personal revelation about myself that I shared with my therapist who then shared it with my parents. They weren’t happy with the fact that along with the ghost thing I was apparently, in their eyes, broken. The joys of being from a small Midwest town.”

It apparently didn’t take Abby long to figure out what Kelly meant since she made a small choking sound.

“Yeah.”

“How did you figure it out?”

“Ran headlong into a girl and kissed her on accident. I had been kissed by the few boys who weren’t put off by what my brothers told them, but kissing the girl just felt…..better.”

“Hm. Did you ever date?”

“The only girls who would bother with me were cousins and incest is a mortal sin….granted so is being gay but I pick and choose which mortal sins I adhere to.”

Abby laughed softly and shook her head.

“I can’t picture you as Catholic.”

“Lapsed. I was raised Catholic, but when you speak to the dead and most say there’s nothing on the other side it can make one feel a little like religion is a crock.” Kelly shrugged slightly and finished out her soup. “Once I came to New York I stopped bothering with church and just lived my life. Can’t say I miss sitting in a hot room with a man standing at the front telling me I’m going to go to hell.”

Abby nodded slightly in understanding before sighing. “Erin’s parents weren’t perfect, but they never gave her that much grief. At least her mom never did. I can’t imagine growing up battling like that on two different fronts.”

“I didn’t fight. I just left.”

“Still. I mean it had to take a lot of bravery and planning to get out so quickly and quietly.”

“A lot of planning. By second semester I was already moving everything into a storage center ready to be shipped. Didn’t matter what school I got to so long as I was the hell out of my home town.”

Abby nodded slightly and the two fell into silence and finished their food and a few more cans of beer. By the end of it they were both fairly tipsy and well fed, giving them a fairly giggly mindset. Abby had moved her chair around so she was sitting alongside Kelly as the two of them swapped stories about the more embarrassing moments of high school that didn’t involve their classmates or ghosts.

They were leaning into each other in giggles over one of Kelly’s stories involving her many cousins, Kelly’s head tucked neatly into Abby’s neck as she tried to calm herself down. It had been a long while since she just sat down and laughed or had a reason to. Shifting so she could sit upright again she tipped her head slightly to start another one of her stories when she paused and realized just how close she was to Abby’s face. While Abby hadn’t reacted with anything more than questions about her sexuality it didn’t mean she was comfortable being this close to her.

Before she could move away from Abby and give her breathing space the other woman leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss. Kelly’s breathing stopped for a brief second and when Abby pulled away to look at her Kelly was sure her eyes were blown wide.

“I…I’m sorry Kelly.”

“No..no. I…we’re drunk and this is _not_ a good idea.”

Abby nodded slightly and Kelly carefully stood from her seat.

“I’m gonna head to my apartment before the last bus stops running. We can…talk about this at a later time.”

Abby nodded again and Kelly grabbed her bag and headed out. When she got home she quickly stripped and changed into her pjs. As she laid on her bed she grabbed her cell and sent Abby a text before her drunken mind could pull her completely asleep.

_‘I’m not ticked. I’m drunk and drunk people don’t remember the people they kiss in the morning. You don’t deserve to be forgotten.’_


	7. Electric Charge

There wasn’t a response waiting for Kelly when she woke up so she pretended the pang she felt was from a hangover she didn’t have.

Ignoring that it was in her chest not her head.

Irusan and Kellas hopped up as she got up from her bed, chasing after her feet as she headed to the bathroom. Standing in front of her sink she yanked a brush through her curls and bound them up into a messy bun. By lunch half of it will have wiggled out, and that was if the hair tie didn’t snap before then. Staring at herself Kelly wished she hadn’t drank so much in high school because then maybe she’d have a hangover that would be blocking last night’s memories.

She hadn’t been lying. Her first and only kiss with a woman before last night had been an accident. Freshman year and dealing with a growth spurt that left her confused about her own body and suddenly developing two left feet where before she swore one of them was a right foot. Classes were fast paced and she had tripped somewhere between second and third period, landing on top of a girl she would later find out was a cheerleader. The kiss had been an accident and while she stumbled through an apology as she hastily climbed off of her Kelly’s mind kept wanting to ask if she could do it again.

Thankfully because it was an accident no one realized what was going through Kelly’s mind and the girl she ran into just laughed. It was the first and would be the last time for a long while anyone laughed at Kelly and it wasn’t following some comment about her being crazy. When she told her therapist what she was feeling he gave her the word ‘lesbian’ and told her to look it up in the library. While she was searching out the word he was making a call to her mother and father and telling them what she told him.

If there was a god in the world it was the only thing that kept her parents from telling her brothers _why_ Kelly went over her father’s knee when she got home that night.

Shaking her head to get the memory out Kelly splashed some water on her face to wake herself up more. Heading back to her bedroom she dressed in a pair of bell bottoms jeans and a long sleeved top. She had seven lectures today and three of them were with professors that kept the room arctic cold under the pretense it kept students awake.

Kelly was proud to say she was one to prove them wrong.

Padding out to her kitchen Kelly paused slightly and glanced around, realizing she couldn’t see the wisps that usually bobbed after her. Sighing softly and headed back to her room switching out the ankle socks she had pulled on for knee highs and pulled on a thick sweater instead of her blouse. The only reason the wisps disappeared was because there would be a thunderstorm that day.

Pausing she realized that was something she should’ve mentioned to Abby and the others.  
Maybe they’d figure out why it happened.

Grabbing her cell she froze slightly, staring at the text Abby didn’t answer from the night before. Reasonably it could’ve been that she just hadn’t seen it yet.

But Kelly was about to text Abby asking if she could think of a reason that thunderstorms caused her to be unable to manifest anything so reasonable wasn’t something common to her.

Clicking her thumb against the case of her phone she closed her eyes and decided to text something that gave Abby the choice of not answering. Instead of just texting her she sent a group text to the women.

_‘Thunderstorm today, bring an umbrella.’_

With the text sent she finished getting dressed and grabbed her backpack. Tucking her umbrella into her bag she headed to the bus stopped and caught the bus just before it could pull away. Getting into a seat she felt her phone buzz angrily a few times. Pulling it out she clicked open the messenger app.

She got a question marks from Patty, Holtzmann and Abby and a _‘The weather is supposed to be sunny’_ from Erin. The fact Abby responded caused her heart to stop tensing in her chest. 

It was just a question mark but it still calmed her down.

_‘You’ll see’_ Was all she sent back before she settled into her seat. When it arrived at the campus’ bus stop she headed out, opening her umbrella about two seconds before the skies decided to open up on the school. Standing still she smirked slightly as she watched various students screamed and scattered.

It was always fun to know when this was about to happen.

Her phone buzzed again and when she looked at it she laughed. All four of them were freaking out and demanding to know how she knew it was going to rain.

_'I’ve always known when it was gonna thunder’_

_‘How?!?!’_ came the very fast response from Holtzmann.

_‘The wisps disappear.’_

The next text was from Abby _‘Can you come by for some tests?’_

Kelly paused for a moment, clicking her nail against her phone case again. Was she seriously considering skipping her lectures to go get tests run? It wasn’t like there wouldn’t be another thunderstorm, and probably one on one of her days off as well. Sighing she was about to text her back saying no before pausing again. Flipping through her contacts she found her group mate Nicole.

_‘Can you take extra notes for me?? I’m gonna miss the lectures.’_

_‘You okay?!’_

_‘Good. Sore throat and fever.’_

_‘Ick. I’ll record it’_

_‘Go raibh maith agat!’_ Nicole was minoring in languages and enjoyed it when anyone with English as a second language spoke to her in their maiden tongue. Kelly learned Irish, Scottish, and English growing up, allowing her to switch between the three languages easily.

With that she turned and hopped onto the next bus that came by, shaking out her umbrella once she got on the bus. It took hopping onto another bus before she was at the firehouse.

“Morning Kevin.” She said as she passed by his desk, not stopping as she headed up to the second floor. “Morning!” She called, throwing her bag into the chair she often used.

“Hey baby. No classes today?” Patty called from her little library.

“Skipping. I can miss a day.” Kelly shrugged slightly, coming over to Patty. “Abby wants to tests thunderstorms influence on me.”

“Girl you shouldn’t be skipping classes.” As she spoke Patty handed over a book before grabbing another for herself. Flicking the book open Kelly noted that it was a historical recount of some events surrounding her college.

“I have a group member recording the lectures for me. I won’t miss much.”

“Hey Kelly.” Abby’s voice didn’t let onto what had happened the night before so Kelly decided to follow suit. “Ready to see what’s going on?”

“Yep.” Stepping over to her chair Kelly held still as Abby attached the wires again. Kicking her shoes off she stood still as Abby checked over the machines and wrote down the numbers that appeared.

“Huh….your initial readings haven’t changed. But you’re not seeing the wisps you usually do?”

“No. Thunderstorms are the only time I can safely walk barefoot through a graveyard.”

“You’ve done that?”

“Once with the storm and once without. I will always regret the once without. I started a party.”

That got a startled laugh from Patty as she came over to see what’s was going on.

“Step off the mat.” Abby didn’t look up from the machines as Kelly stepped off the mat. The machines went nuts like they always did and Kelly noticed that her brows furrowed slightly. “Your readings haven’t changed. You should still be seeing the wisps.”

“Well maybe it’s the lightening.” Patty offered, looking out the window as another few flashes happened. “One my cousins knows when it’s gonna rain because her hair frizzes out. The humidity and static in the air messes with it.”

“That…actually makes sense. The static in the air could be messing with the natural charge of spectral energy and causes Kelly to not connect with that energy.” Abby said, writing the thought down along with the numbers she had taken. With that she came over and started to help Kelly take the wires off.

Kelly twisted her hand slightly so her fingers brushed against Abby’s startling the other enough so looked at her. Raising an eyebrow she tried to use her facial expressions to ask if they were okay. Abby gave her a sheepish smile and nodded slightly before heading back to turn the machines off.

Folding her hands together Kelly turned slightly to Patty, noticing the woman was looking between Kelly and Abby with a raised eyebrow. And Patty was better at talking through facial expressions since Kelly instantly blushed when she felt Patty’s gaze on her. Giving her a timid smile and shrug Kelly scratched at her cheek and looked away, not missing Patty’s quiet chuckle and the gentle push against her shoulder from the woman.

After a few more tests Kelly was released to go home, waving bye to the girls. On her way to the bus stop Kelly pulled her phone out started to text her groupmate for the first few recordings when her phone buzzed angrily in her hand. Clicking she found it was Abby.

_‘Can I swing by your place later tonight to talk?’_

_‘Sure. Just tell Rick you’re there to see me and he’ll let you in.’_

Closing out of that message Kelly clicked her nail again and sighed.

What was she going to do for dinner?


	8. Cliches and Cats

In the end Kelly went to a pub near the apartment and picked up some food. The owners were both Irish and seemed to enjoy it whenever she came around. After getting the food she told Ricky she was expecting a guest over so he wouldn’t be surprised when Abby got there.

Setting the bags down in the living room Kelly went to her kitchen and grabbed plates and cups for them. She didn’t have any beer in the house, but she did have a good amount of soda and juice. Pulling out one of each she left them in the kitchen and went to fill the food dishes of her cats. 

Irusan and Kellas seemed to know that someone was coming because they were both sitting watching the door instead of her. Opening a can of wet food as a treat she spooned it into their food dishes she looked up just as Irusan started trilling. Irusan was always trilled whenever someone was about to knock on the door.

Jogging over to her door she opened it just as Abby raised her hand to knock.

“Evening, come on it.”

“…Did you hear my footsteps?” Abby laughed as she entered the apartment.

“Irusan heard you coming.” As Kelly spoke Irusan and Kellas came over to start sniffing her. “You don’t have a cat allergy do you?”

“Nah. Don’t tell Kevin that though.” Abby bent down to pet the cats as they sniffed over her hands and face. “They brothers?”

“Yeah. Purebred Oriental Shorthairs. Irusan and Kellas.”

“I’ve never heard those names before.”

“Irusan is the King of cats in Irish lore and Kellas cats are Scottish wild cats.”

“Huh.”

As Abby got familiar with her cats Kelly went to get the food out of the bags and start plating them up. Since she didn’t have guests over often there wasn’t a dining table so she set the plates on the coffee table and whistled to get Abby’s attention.

“Soda or juice?”

“Soda please.”

“Gotcha.” Pouring two glasses of soda she carried them into the kitchen. “Dinner’s done. Hope you like Irish grub.”

“You cooked?”

“I burn salads. Nah, there’s a pub down the way whose owners are Irish and love cooking. Makes me feel like my gram’s still there.”

“Oh…I’m sorry.”

“She went easy, that’s all I could ask.”

“You two were close I’m guessing.” As she spoke Abby came over and sat on the couch.

“Kinda. Gram was my dad’s mom and the Irish half of the family. She always preferred daughters to sons and apparently was pissed when it didn’t look like he was going to give her a granddaughter. When I was born she was beside herself in joy. And then the bruises started.”

“She believed your parents.”

Kelly shrugged slightly and passed Abby a plate of food before sitting on the floor across from her “She believed me when I said I wasn’t doing it, but she didn’t believe the ghost things. I was the only one of the seven of us who would go to the nursing home to see her so she would actually listen to me when I talked. She just thought that I was being mistreated at school and that my parents were being stubborn.”

Abby nodded slightly, digging into her food. “What about the rest of your grandparents?”

“Gramp was Gram’s husband and dead before Emmett was born. Mammy and Pappy were my mother’s parents. Mammy wanted me to go back to Scotland with her and Pappy instead of staying in America. Pappy would get pissed whenever my parents talked about me being crazy.”

“Maybe someone in your family was like you?”

“I asked, but he never answered.”

The two lapsed into silence for a moment, eating their food as the two cats found their wet food and went to town as well.

“Kelly….I gotta apologize for the other night.”

“Why?”

“Because…I forced a kiss on you?”

“No. You kissed me. Big difference.”

Abby raised an eyebrow at that, motioning with her fork for Kelly to continue.

“We were like two inches from each other’s face, tipsy as all hell and in a warm and cuddly moods. Not standing five feet from each other and in the middle of a screaming match.” Pausing for a moment to swallow her food she pointed her own fork at Abby “There wasn’t any force to it, it just happened.”

“Still you seemed freaked.”

“Being drunk is the explanation for what happened not an excuse for it. I was freaked because I’ve seen my brothers and cousins do a lot of stupid shit while drunk and then try to wiggle out of responsibility for their actions by repeating that they had been seriously drunk. I was a fairly heavy drinker in high school and know that even tipsy I can lose my memory of the night before.”

Abby nodded slightly, looking embarrassed. “About that….you sent me a text mentioning it and….welll…” Digging her phone out she tapped on it a few times to pull something up before handing her phone over.

Looking at the phone Kelly noticed Abby had pulled up the messenger app and was on their personal conversation. Looking at it Kelly’s eyes went wide noticing that Abby had responded to the texts she sent that night, but her phone hadn’t sent the text.

“Well this is awkward.” Kelly said as she stared at the text “I thought you were pissed.”

But the evidence against that was sitting in her hands clear as day.

_‘Neither do you. Should we try again when we’re sober?’_

“Nope. But apparently my phone decided to cockblock.”

Kelly started laughing at that, falling back onto the floor and clutching her stomach. Abby answered her laughter on the couch and for the next few moments all they could do was laugh.

Sitting back up Kelly handed Abby’s phone back to her, pausing slightly when Abby used the moment to grab her hand.

“I mean it Kelly. If you ever wanna…”

“I just gotta ask?”

“Yeah…”

Kelly nodded slightly and turned her hand under Abby’s, rubbing her fingers against her wrist slightly “Same goes to you girl.”

Abby nodded and they broke the grip so Kelly could grab their empty plates and glasses and take them to the kitchen. Refilling their glasses Kelly came back into the living room and handed Abby hers back. Before she could sit back down on the floor Abby tugged on her arm to get her to sit next to her. Settling onto the couch Kelly sighed softly and leaned into the backrest. As the two of them rested together Irusan and Kellas hopped into their laps and curled up with yawns.

“Spoiled brats.”

“Did you have pets growing up?” Abby asked, scratching Kellas under his chin.

“Nah. Mom had an allergy to basically every pet in the world besides fish, reptiles, and birds. Dad put his foot down and said the house was full enough with seven kids and there was no way they were adding pets into the mess.”

“So the first thing you did was get a reason never to invite your mother to your apartment.”

“….Now why didn’t I think of that?” Kelly laughed, shaking her head. “Nah. I got them a year ago and moved here a couple years ago. Their mom lives with a next door neighbor.”

Abby chuckled softly, focusing on Kellas as the cat rolled onto his back for stomach pettings. Petting Irusan in her own lap Kelly tipped her head back onto the couch and closed her eyes sighing softly.

“Tired?”

“Nah. Relaxed. Normally talking about my family causes me to tense up since people start asking why I left. Hard to explain my family issues without bringing up the ghost thing.”

“Hm.” Kelly felt Abby tip herself slightly so they were pressing into each other. Kelly shifted herself so she was leaning into Abby as well.

They stayed like that for a quiet moment, leaning into each other with cats in their laps. Kelly started laughing softly, shaking her head.

“We look like a cliché.”

“Yes we do.” Abby laughed, gently shoving her shoulder into Kelly.

Kelly chuckled and tipped her head slightly so her forehead brushed against Abby’s, resting more heavily against her. Abby pressed closer as well, humming softly.

It was a sweet quiet moment, one of the first in Kelly’s life.


	9. Paintings and Time off

“You’re in a chipper mood Mick.”

Kelly’s hand froze from her note taking when Jeremy leaned on her table, his arms covering her notebooks and papers. Clicking her pen she leaned back and looked at Jeremy with a raised eyebrow. He paused for a moment, noting the rather unimpressed look Kelly was sporting. Looking at his arms noticed he was covering her notes and quickly backed away.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t do it again.” Kelly leaned back and clicked her pen again, going back to taking her notes for a massive research paper she was doing. It was one for her Latin class since her Master’s degree required her to have a language course despite her already being trilingual. She went with Latin since it was a root language and would probably be something she’d have to deal with a lot during her history classes.

“Back on point Spud, you’re in a chipper mood.”

“I do hope I get to see you call someone who actually gives a damn a slur. Be a fun show and put me into an even more chipper mood.”

“You got laid last night.”

“I was home with a fever last night.”

“Uh huh.”

Jeremy flopped into the seat across from her and watched her work as she wrote out an essay.

“I realize I’m reading this upside down…but it doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s in Latin. Neal is having us write a ten-page essay covering a subject he assigned us.”

“What’s yours?”

“Historical significance of Nero’s actions.”

“Eh?”

“I don’t know how to say it differently. I’m writing a paper covering the history of Nero and his actions.”

“In Latin?”

“Yeah.”

“….Neal’s a bastard.”

“Oh yeah.”

The rest of their lunch period was passed in silence except for the scratching of Kelly’s pen against her paper and a few muttered comments from Jeremy about her being brave for writing in ink.

Before her last class Kelly changed into her work clothes, a text from her boss that morning asking her to be in an hour early. He had mentioned last week they were setting up a gallery show so her hours were going to be futzed around a little as they got the gallery ready for it.  
Hopping off the bus Kelly paused slightly, the sight of a familiar hearse causing her eyebrow to jump. Smoothing her hair away from her face she headed into the gallery, spying her boss and the Ghostbusters talking together.

“Something I should know?”

“Kelly!” Abby smiled brightly as Kelly walked over to the group. “Didn’t know this was your gallery.”

“You know the Ghostbusters, Quinn?” Desmond was the director and an uppity British man, but he paid her well and seemed to be as open to the world of spirits as Kelly was.

“Friends of mine boss. We haunted?” They couldn’t be. She had walked around the gallery with her shoes off when she was first getting used to the heels. If there had been anything there she would’ve woken it up long before now. Coming over to Abby she smiled softly and bumped her hip into hers.

“No, but there is a chance we will be. For this month’s show we will be hosting the infamous painting _The Hands Resist Him_.”

There was a beat of silence as Kelly rolled her tongue in her mouth, staring Desmond down. The only reason she wasn’t glaring was because he didn’t know her issue. Sighing softly she raised an eyebrow at Abby who shrugged.

“I called them in so that if anything happened they would be aware beforehand of the possible cause. The painting is currently waiting in the safe. Could you take them to see it so they can record their tests?”

“Of course.”

Motioning for them to follow Kelly lead the group to the safe and punched in the code to open the door. Once they were in she closed the door behind them as was the order given.

“He’s lucky he doesn’t know.” Kelly growled slightly, turning back to the group.

“Hey at least he’s giving you warning.” Abby said, coming over to Kelly and taking her hand gently. Sighing Kelly nodded and turned her hand under Abby’s and laced their fingers together.

“I’ve got some vacation time saved up. The show is only gonna run a week so I’ll probably take the time off. Anna’s been complaining about not getting any overtime so she’ll love it.”

Both walked to the painting which was locked in an enclosed glass case. As Kelly looked over it she noticed a slight nausea in her stomach and backed away from the case with a wince.  
“Feeling something?” Holtzmann was running the P.K.E meter along the case and gathering information.

“Sick to my stomach, but I’m not seeing any wisps.” Reaching out Kelly placed her hand against a wall, letting herself connect to the energy around them. The P.K.E meter went nuts as usual, and Holtzmann’s eyebrows jumped.

“It’s picking up and all the energy is focusing on the painting. Probably why there’s no wisps. It’s not a local haunting, just the painting”

Taking her hand off the wall quieted the meter but Kelly kept her distance from the painting, giving it a side eye.

“So all in agreement? It’s haunted?” Abby asked, coming over to Kelly to check on her, hands gently rubbing her arms.

“Uh-huh.”

“Yep.”

“Yes.”

“Good” Abby said, looking over the read out from the meter with Holtzmann. “Kel taking time off is probably for the best. Don’t want you waking that thing up every day.”

Nodding more to herself then to Abby Kelly ushered them out of the room quickly and locked the safe door behind them. Leading them to Desmond they gave their report, leaving a card with their number so they could be called at a moment’s notice.

Once they were gone Kelly went back to Desmond and requested the next week off, honestly telling him she had three massive papers she had to write that were due next week. Desmond was always willing to help her with her schooling, openly stating her Master’s in history could be useful. But in exchange for the time off she had to help set up the gallery.

Shivering slightly at the thought Kelly agreed and went to work since the gallery wouldn’t be set up until they closed. The rest of her night was spent on pins, knowing that soon enough she was going to have to get into physical contact with the painting. She could understand Desmond’s idea of keeping the painting for a short while, wanting to see it for himself.

At set up Kelly was given gloves to wear as she helped Desmond move the painting into place. Touching it, even through the gloves, made her stomach turn and she had to hold her breath slightly to keep from puking. Desmond didn’t seem to notice her state, talking a mile a minute about the tickets they already sold and how this would help their gallery get an upswing in visitors.

At the end of it she felt sick and clammy, shaking her hands slightly to get rid of a sticky feeling that clung to them for some reason. Desmond finished up his closing and went outside to smoke while Kelly collected her bag. Her back turned from the painting she paused, hearing a child’s giggle behind her and footsteps. Sighing and shifting her bag over her shoulder she turned to the painting and noticed the girl and boy had disappeared.

“That shit ain’t cute.” She said to the painting, only answered by more giggles. “I’m leaving now. You two follow me you will regret it.”

Fast footsteps running the halls was her only answer and she shook her head, turning the light off on her way out. Waving bye to Desmond she got on a bus heading to the firehouse, figuring that giving the women a heads up that the kids were active would probably cut down on their work.

Sighing tiredly once she got into the firehouse she called up to the group.

“Stop leaving the door unlocked!”

There was shuffling as Kelly headed up the stairs and Abby poked her head out the door just as Kelly came up to it.

“Already told you, we’re the scariest thing here.”

“Hm. The kids left the painting.”

Abby blinked slightly and hurried away to a notebook to write that down. “That’s kinda their thing isn’t it? Sickness and leaving the painting at night.”

“Yeah. Still.”

“You get the time off?”

“Yep, got a week off to finish my school essays.”

“Wanna write them here?” Abby asked, coming over to Kelly.

“You want me to?”

Abby just laughed softly and took Kelly’s hand. Kelly took the initiative this time and leaned forward, gently kissing Abby. Her free hand came up to cup Abby’s cheek as Abby’s went around her waist and tugged her closer. The next few moments were passed quietly, the only sound being their breathing and their lips moving against each other. They were still holding hands, their fingers moving to lace together as Kelly stepped closer so she was pressed closer to Abby.

Unfortunately the motion jostled their joined hands and they knocked over something loud. Jumping and breaking the kiss Kelly stared at the thing with a look she was sure resembled one of her cats. Abby laughed at her expression, shaking her head.

“I think that was a sign we should let you get home.”

“Yeah. I’ll be back after school.”

“Alright.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Hands Resist Him is a painting done by Bill Stoneham. Supposedly haunted the paranormal activity is that being near the painting or looking at it causes physical illness and the two characters in the painting will leave the painting though the story as to why they leave is different (sometimes it's just them leaving, other times the little girl in the painting forces the boy out). It became famous after going on sale on Ebay with it's lengthy history posted


	10. Cellphone joy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my own sake of mind I will be using //text// to designate when a character is speaking a different language instead of writing the conversation in that language. Lazy? Yes. But I feel it's easier to do then trying to track down an accurate translation and wind up still being wrong. And probably easier to read

“Coffee.”

“Elixir. Sparks.”

“Fun. Chicken.”

“Evil. Candy.”

“Forbidden. Music.”

“What are you two doing?”

Kelly and Holtzmann both looked up from their respective works; Holtzmann busy with another gadget while Kelly was elbows deep into a research paper. Both blinked at Erin who was looking between the two of them very confused.

“Word association.” Kelly finally piped up, repining her bangs after they fell into her eyes. She was dressed in sweatpants and a tank top, showing off the scars that patterned her arms from various ghosts that got a little…frisky with her. They were simply from their nails digging into her when they grabbed, dotting up and down her arms like demented freckles only a shade darker than her natural skin tone. Someone had to be pretty close to her arms to see them, but Kelly still didn’t like showing off skin very often.

“Why?”

“Because Kel’s brain is gonna fall out if she has to read or write one more sentence about Rasputin.” Holtzmann said, quoting Kelly word for word.

“What she said.”

“I thought you were going to specialize in Ancient History and Culture?”

“I am. But my English teacher is having me write this one. My history paper is focusing on religious symbolism. And my Latin teacher is making me write about Nero. We’re supposed to be arguing if he did or didn’t set Rome on fire.” Kelly sighed, rolling from where she had been laying on her stomach in Patty’s library tapping away at her keyboard. Now on her knees she smiled at Erin. “Gotta love working for your Master’s.”

Erin gave her a smile and nod, putting down a few books she had gone to collect. She and Abby were digging into the history of haunted paintings just in case Kelly’s boss or another art gallery got more of them. Thanks to the gallery Kelly had been able to provide the history for the painting there which showed it wasn’t a violent painting, but some could be.

Abby followed in soon after, smiling to both Holtzmann and Kelly. Setting her own books down she came over to Kelly and kissed her forehead. It had been a day since their make out session and the two were slowly integrating physical affection into their time together. Kelly had never been in a relationship so she was still learning the steps one took in it and Abby was thankfully very patient with her. The others didn’t comment on Kelly or Abby leaning into each other or gently touching or kissing.

“How’s the paper coming Kel?”

“My brain has turned to pudding in my skull.”

“So almost done?”

“Two paragraphs left.” Abby laughed softly and patted her shoulder.

“Finish it up then. I went through the same stuff when I was getting my degrees as well.”

“Exactly, you should be sympathetic to my situation.”

That got a laugh from the three doctors in the room as Patty walked in with bags of food from the deli.

“They make fun of you girl?”

“Yes!”

Patty gave a clucking sound and came over to Kelly, taking her laptop and reviewing what she had written so far. It hadn’t been much of a shock for her to learn that Patty also held a Master’s degree in history, but while Kelly was focusing on the ancient stuff Patty had focused on New York’s history. Her job at the MTA had been to stay close to her family and pay back student loans.

“Damn girl. You wrote all this in the time it took for me to get food?”

“No I wrote half of that. The other half was written during lunch.” Kelly was a fast typer so it didn’t take her long to bust out six pages worth of material. It was probably the only reason she could manage all her essays at once unlike a few of her classmates who promptly lost their minds when faced with two at a time.

Patty sat in an arm chair that looked like it had been dragged out of some Victorian painting as she looked over Kelly’s work, leaving Kelly to collect her papers and books and clean up her mess. Setting her stuff near her bag she got up off the floor and left Patty to work on her laptop. Padding across the room and waving a wisp aside Kelly leaned against Abby’s work table and read the page she was currently on.

“If Desmond ever gets that painting I’m quitting.” As all she could mutter as she stared at the details and hauntings surrounding a painting titled The Dead Mother, by Edvard Munch. “The kids are creepy enough. I don’t care how famous Munch is.”

“Agreed.” Abby’s arm went around Kelly’s waist and tugged her closer. “Hey if he does decide to do a haunting painting again we could always use a good receptionist.”

“Is Kevin’s phone even connected?”

“No. No it’s not.”

Kelly laughed softly and tipped her head towards Abby’s resting against her as they looked over the book some more. The two were quiet for a moment as Abby’s flipped the pages in the book before Patty called Kelly over again so they could discuss her paper.

Patty was a better teacher than some of her professors so Kelly went over eagerly.

At the end of the day Kelly had to head back to her apartment, promising she’d come by again tomorrow. While it wasn’t the typical environment for paper writing she had managed to finish her English paper and get a good start on her history.

Entering her apartment with a sigh Kelly dropped her bag at the door and kicked her shoes off. The three wisps that were always there floated out to see her before going back to doing whatever wisps did. Flopping onto her couch her plans of just lying there until she was hungry was shattered by her phone cell ringing it’s head off.

Grumbling angrily, she grabbed it without looking and hit the answer button.

“What?”

“Not very nice Ghràdh”

Sitting upright Kelly felt her lips spread into a wide smile “Mammy!”

//Hello my love. How is New York?//

//Fine mammy, how’d you get this number?// As she spoke Kelly laid back down on her couch, curling up on her side. Slipping in Scottish or Irish were easy for her.

//Scott is a good boy. He told me what happened and gave me your number. Remind me to give him more money for his birthday this year.//

Kelly laughed at that, glad to hear her mammy’s voice. 

//Wonderful! Oh my love you should’ve come with us!//

//Mom didn’t want me to remember? You and Pappy weren’t gonna fix me.//

//Nothing to fix, as I told my daughter. Bah! She’s never listened to us.//

The rest of the conversation carried on with Kelly filling her mammy in on how life had been since leaving Oklahoma. Since her scholarship only covered tuition and the books Kelly had been working at various jobs to pay for everything else, which meant she was only in school part time. She had graduated at nineteen and was now twenty-six years old, just starting her Master’s degree.

//How long will that take?//

//Two or three years, and that’s full time.//

//I don’t like you working and schooling at the same time.//

//Schooling is a weird word.//

//Pay attention!//

Kelly almost rolled off of her couch in laughter, hearing her mammy start complaining on the other end on the phone.

//It’s fine mammy. I’m doing good and my boss is nice.//

//Hmph. Fine. I still protest.//

//Yes mammy.//

//I love you baby, you know that yes?//

//I know mammy. I miss you.//

//I’ll rattle your pappy’s cage and make him take us to see you.//

//I can’t wait.//

//Good. And when we are there you can introduce us to whoever is making you happy.//

//Mammy?// Kelly hadn’t mentioned Abby or anything that had happened in the recent weeks.

//A mother always knows my love.//


	11. Ghostly Knocks

“If I die I’m haunting you all.”

“That’s actually kinda scary.”

Kelly was sitting the in passenger seat of the hearse again, staring straight out the windshield with a look more fitted to a death march then a drive to a hotel.

“How is that scarier than anything else we gotta deal with Holtzy?”

“Kel already manifests ghost while alive. I don’t wanna see her in action as a ghost.”

The three in the back paused and Kelly felt their eyes turn to her. Clicking her tongue she looked back at them and raised an eyebrow.

“I die; you all get haunted.” She repeated before turning back to the front. Behind her she could hear them checking their gear to make sure their equipment was ready to go at a moment’s notice. Next to her Holtzmann snickered, shaking her head slightly as she kept driving.

“Why am I even going?”

“Because” Holtzmann’s voice was a drawl as she spoke, “We’re testing the beacon and you’re there to see if anything there to begin with.”

“Won’t I just screw up the tests?”

“You’re wearing rubber shoes right?” Abby leaned forward so Kelly turned to face her. “So we’ll let you connect and see if energy sparks. If it does disconnect and then we’ll use the beacon to try and lure it out fully.”

“And if it doesn’t work I’m still on hand.”

“Exactly!”

Kelly sighed and turned back to the front, fiddling with the sleeves of the spare jumpsuit. She had been halfway done with her Latin paper, having finished the history paper the day before, and was once again laying in Patty’s library space working when a call came in saying a ghost was causing a wreck at some fancy hotel. Holtzmann had mentioned she had finished the beacon and needed to test it, which lead to Kelly being bundled up in the same jumpsuit the others wore and hurried into the hearse.

They pulled up to the hotel and everyone piled out, the women gearing up while Kelly went inside to find the person who called them. It didn’t take her long since the owner was waiting for them in a clear panic.

“Are you with the Ghostbusters?”

“Yeah, the girls are gearing up. Can you explain exactly what the ghost has been doing?”

“It’s been tearing apart the basement.” Kelly’s threat rang loud in her head at the idea of a violent ghost. “Everything down there is being torn to pieces and the noise is starting to cause the guests problems at night.”

“Has anyone been hurt by it?”

“No thankfully. It seems to disappear when someone goes down into the basement. But I fear it may turn violent.”

“Mm. Which way to the basement?”

“I’ll go get Starrett and have him take you down.”

“Starrett?” The owner had already walked away when she said that but apparently the women had come up behind her.

“Someone you know Kel?” Abby linked their arms together to get her attention.

“My mom’s maiden name. And she has a few brothers who have kids.”

“What are the chances it’s one of your cousins?”

“Very very good apparently.” Kelly tensed as Glenn, her oldest cousin on record, came over with the owner wearing the hotel uniform. “Glenn.”

“Kelly?! What….I….” His eyes were wide as he looked at his cousin, blinking in shock. The owner looked between them before clearing his throat.

“Starrett will take you down to the basement.” The group nodded and followed after Glenn who kept glancing back at Kelly.

“What?” She finally snapped, glaring at him.

“You freaked everyone out Kells. You just disappeared.”

“I left a note.”

“Yeah and all it said was ‘I’m leaving’, not much of a note.”

“I don’t owe any of you an explanation. You all knew why I left.”

Glenn’s shoulders jumped slightly but Kelly didn’t let up on her glare.

“That’s not fair Kells. I never hurt you.”

“You never helped either.”

Their argument was cut short by arriving at the basement floor. Glenn stayed at the stairs while the women spread out. Kelly stayed close to Abby as Jillian set up the beacon.

“What’s that going to do?”

“Hopefully allow me to keep your cousin safe.” Abby apparently was taking Kelly’s side in the argument with Glenn. “Kelly can you check if there’s anything hanging around?”

Pulling away from Abby Kelly walked to the nearest wall and looked across the room to Erin who held the P.K.E up. When Erin nodded Kelly took a deep breath and pressed her hand against the wall. In the space of a heartbeat the room was filled with wisps which floated peacefully around them.

“Okay so definite energy spike.” Erin seemed nervous as she checked the meter. “On the same level of our first meeting, so I’m going to venture that mea-”

Erin was cut off by a low glow starting from another room in the basement. Kelly jerked her hand off of the wall, ending the light show of the wisps and quieting the meter down.

“Alright. Holtz we got confirmation. Start up the beacon.”

With a little laugh that put Kelly’s hair on end Holtzmann bent over the beacon, which looked like one of those plasma globes she saw in kiddie science museums, and turned it on. As the lights started bouncing around the globe the wisps came back and Kelly backed away, shaking her head.

“What? What’s wrong?” Abby came over to her and gently rubbed her back.

“Is it supposed to be making that buzzing sound?”

“Buzzing?” Holtzmann checked it over before shaking her head. “I’m not hearing anything. Maybe it’s just you.”

“Wonder if it’s going to piss off the ghost.”

Kelly was answered a moment later when a heavy box came out of another room and hit the wall near her and Abby, having been launched at a high speed. The blue glow of a ghost followed after it, a tall man with half his face missing. He was dressed in workman’s clothing and Kelly wondered if Patty would be able to tell exactly when he died by his clothing. Erin and Patty quickly got their guns ready while Holtzmann bounced around the beacon to move it out of the path of the ghost. Abby stepped between Kelly and the ghost, her own gun pointing at it.

“Holtz get the trap ready!”

“Working on it!”

“Kelly, get your cousin and get upstairs.”

“Right.” Moving had been a bad idea. But Kelly hadn’t known that when she started running to Glenn, planning on shoving him back up the stairs. What she also didn’t know is that the ghost had a monkey wrench, but she learned that fairly quickly when the ghost threw it and caught her in the side. And unfortunately for Kelly the ghost had a fairly strong arm.

“KELLY!” She wasn’t exactly sure who screamed her name as she dropped, wind completely knocked out of her. It took a few moments before she could breathe again, and during that time she heard the proton guns hit the ghost. As soon as she could she took a deep breath, wincing but since her chest fully expanded she knew she hadn’t broken a rib. She had broken one before thanks to a ghost and didn't want a repeat.

Coughing and trying not to move to much Kelly lifted her head in time to see the ghost get sucked into the trap. As soon as it closed Abby quickly unhooked herself from her proton pack and ran over to Kelly, kneeling down beside her. By now Kelly had rolled onto her undamaged side to try and help her breath.

“Kel…Kelly can you hear me?” Gentle hands cupped the back of her neck to help her look around.

“Yeah. Just a bit winded.” Kelly's voice was a squeak, something she'd be embarrassed about later. For now she focused on regaining her breath and not blacking out.

“Alright…I gotta check your side.” Kelly could feel Abby’s hands hesitate at opening her jump suit so she undid the buttons herself. With Abby’s help she peeled the jumpsuit back and lifted her shirt to show off her side. “Not how I wanted to get your shirt off.”

Kelly laughed at that before coughing. “I’m laying here bruised and you’re making jokes.”

“Learned it from Holtz. Patty can you carry her to the hearse?”

“Yeah. Come on baby, let’s get you home.”

Kelly wrapped her arms around Patty’s neck when she picked her up, sighing softly as she tried to relax. Somewhere between the stairs and getting the owner’s attention Kelly had passed out in her arms, pain finally winning.


	12. Bed Rest and Paperwork

After she passed out the women took Kelly back to her apartment to rest. It was nightfall when she woke up, having gotten attacked shortly after noon. 

Climbing out of bed she changed from the spare jumpsuit and what she had been wearing under, pausing to look at her side in the mirror once she was naked. The monkey wrench had caught her full in the side, probably the only reason she escaped with a bruise instead of a broken bone. The bruise currently blue from the blood, but she was familiar with bruises and knew the blue color would probably turn into a nasty purple and black color soon. It covered most of her left side, from her hip to just under her armpit but it was a skinny bruise, the width of the monkey wrenches’ back.

“What are you doing?” Apparently while she was checking her side Abby had come in to check on her. Turning to her Kelly noted that she also had changed out of her jumpsuit.

“Checking on myself.” Kelly headed back into her bedroom and got dressed, tugging on a long nightshirt and shorts.

“Alright you checked, back in bed.”

“I’ve got laundry to do and I’ve got to finish my paper.”

“I’ll do your laundry, and you can write in bed.”

“Abby it’s a bruise, not a broken rib.”

Abby gently pushed Kelly to sit on her bed, standing over her.

“You’ve gotta rest Kel. You passed out.”

“I’ve done it before.”

“Not in front of me.”

Kelly paused for a moment, blinking up at Abby. Now that she was actually focusing on her she could see the bite marks in her lips and how her eyes seemed to be darting over Kelly as if waiting for her to drop again. Sighing and standing back up Kelly put her hands on Abby’s shoulders gently.

“It’s not your fault.”

“I told you to run.”

“I was going to anyway. The only reason I didn’t was because my brain was focusing on the guy with half his face missing.”

Abby laughed at that, hands coming up to gently rest on Kelly’s hips. “I still shouldn’t have drawn attention to you.”

“If there’s one thing the world hates it’s a moving target. Even if you had whispered he still would’ve focused on me.” Kelly said, lifting a hand to gently cup Abby’s cheek.

Abby nodded, pressing her cheek into Kelly’s hand. Leaning forward Kelly kissed her gently, still cupping her cheek. Abby kissed her back eagerly, pressing into Kelly as she hands gripped on her hips. Kelly sat down on her bed, leaning back and gently tugging Abby on top of her. It was a little awkward since they were laying across her bed instead of on it, but Kelly ignored the odd angle to slip her tongue into Abby’s mouth. The other moaned softly and pressed further into the kiss, her own tongue coming out to tangle with Kelly’s.

Kelly’s hands moved to tangle into Abby’s hair, fingers pulling her hair tie out and letting it fall to the floor. She gently pulled at the loose strands, causing Abby to give another moan. As Abby pressed closer she forced Kelly to move her legs open, which allowed Kelly to wrap them around her waist. Abby’s hands moved up under Kelly’s shirt, gently moving past the bruised side and traveling up to cup her breasts. Kelly moaned and arched into Abby’s hands, but the next sound from her was a hiss of pain.

Abby quickly pulled away from Kelly, watching her in fear as Kelly took a deep breath and slowly relaxed herself so she was laying on the bed again instead of arched up.

“Hatred. Unbridled hatred for that stupid ghost.” Kelly groused, blinking back small tears as she looked up at Abby. “I’m fine, just moved wrong.”

Abby sighed softly and moved off of Kelly despite the other trying to keep her in place. “Come on, let’s get you comfortable.”

“I was comfortable!”

She just shook her head and helped Kelly move so she was sitting up against her headboard. Kelly pouted slightly, tugging at Abby’s arm to try and get her to lay in bed with her.

“I gotta get your laptop so you can finish your essay Kel.”

“You’re more important than the essay.”

That got Kelly a laugh but Abby still went out to the living room. Grumbling to herself Kelly shifted to make herself more comfortable against her headboard, moving the pillows around to support her. Irusan and Kellas both came running into the room, finding their favorite spots and giving her a look that easily read ‘We’ve been waiting.’ The two were spoiled for attention and probably were a little ticked off that mommy was asleep when she was supposed to be awake.

“Shush you two.” Kelly said, wiggling her fingers and getting rewarded by two fur babies in her lap. They purred happily as she scratched at their fur, twisting and shoving at each other to try and get more attention. Kelly laughed softly, rubbing their stomachs and under their chins. Abby walked in a moment later and smiled at the scene.

“They do love you.”

“They better.” Kelly laughed, leaning over and pulling out a lap desk she kept in her bedroom whenever she planned on working in her bedroom. Opening it up and taking the laptop from Abby she set up to finish her essay. Abby climbed into the bed with her, leaning up against her shoulder and watching her fingers move over the keyboard.

For the next few moments the only sound was Kelly typing away and the purring of the cats.

“What did you mean? When you said he didn’t help?”

Kelly’s fingers froze in her typing, staring at the blink cursor for a moment.

“What I said. He may not have hurt me but he never tried to help me either. Out of my massive family only Gram, Scott, Mammy and Pappy would step in and help me. The rest ignored what was happening under the pretense that it was up to my parents how to raise me.”

As she spoke Kelly returned to her typing, trying to shrug off the empty feeling in her stomach. Her extended family did love her in some way, but many of the adults seemed more inclined to listen to her parents than her and a good chunk of her cousins only interacted with her during the holidays. If they saw her any other time they pretended not to know her. 

Glenn was the worst of them since he was the one who taught the others to do it.

“It was a small community, it got out quickly that I was in therapy for years or in a group home. My cousins ignored me to protect their reputation. My aunts and uncles didn’t discourage them, probably terrified whatever crazy I had would infect their babies.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“It is, but there was nothing I could do.”

Abby sighed softly and nuzzled into Kelly’s neck as she finished typing up the page she was on. She still had two pages left, but while she was normally a fast typer trying to write in Latin caused her brain to sputter out quicker than normal. Pushing the desk away she sighed and leaned back into her headboard, rubbing her eyes slightly.

“Tired?”

“I’m trilingual. I don’t get why I need to take a language course.”

Abby laughed softly and tipped her head to the side so she could dot kisses along Kelly’s throat. “You’ll do fine. You’re still in your first year of a Master’s.”

“Don’t care, hate Latin.”

She got another laugh for her whining and Abby carefully moving her desk to the floor after saving what she had worked on so far. With them freed up Kelly shifted to lay down, still feeling a little out of it now that the pain in her side had died down to a dull throb. She had classes in the morning so Abby had probably been smart to keep her from moving around.

Abby followed her to lay down and Kelly curled up on her good side, nuzzling her face into Abby’s neck as the other wrapped her arms around Kelly’s waist. Kelly sighed as Abby rubbed her back, lulling her softly back to sleep.

“You’re trying to get me to nap again.”

“You need the rest.” Kelly could feel Abby’s lips take on a smile against her forehead.

“Mm. You must be bored with me sleeping.”

“Not really. Irusan and Kellas have been keeping me company. Plus your apartment is quiet and great for sitting down and getting some of my paperwork done.”

“Mm.” Kelly yawned softly, Abby’s hand still rubbing her back. With the others heartbeat in her ears Kelly relaxed and let her eyes drift shut. She didn’t fall asleep right away, just resting against Abby for a few moments as one of her own hands started to mimic Abby’s and rub at her back. Abby chuckled softly and pressed a kiss against Kelly’s forehead.

“Go to sleep Kel.”

“Mm.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise these two will get a full makeout session one of these days. Just not today


	13. Peaks and Rushes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically most of this chapter is a sexual scene between Kelly and Abby. Might not be the most stimulating but damnit I am always proud of my works.

Kelly’s alarm was set at the same time every day even if she didn’t have classes or only had afternoon classes. It proved to be a lifesaving habit whenever she decided to drink herself to sleep.

But right now it was irritating.

Reaching over Abby Kelly growled as she slapped her alarm clock off, letting her probably drop onto Abby with a sigh.

“You have the evilest alarm clock.” Abby laughed under her, one hand coming up to scratch at Kelly’s head as the other buried her face into Abby’s neck.

“It has it’s uses.” Kelly muttered, yawning and leaning up to look down at Abby and smiled. “Morning.”

“Morning.”

Kelly leaned down and kissed Abby softly, moving to shift herself over the woman and keep her pinned to the bed.

“Your side Kel.” Abby protested against her lips even as her own hands were coming up to push themselves under Kelly’s shirt.

“Doesn’t hurt.” It really didn’t. Kelly had a decent amount of pain tolerance the day after she got hurt. Even broken bones could be ignored so long as she didn’t stress the bones again.

Before Abby could protest again Kelly leaned heavily into the kiss and slipped her tongue into Abby’s mouth, one of her own hands pushing Abby’s shirt up and gently massaging at her breast. Abby gasped softly into the kiss and slid her own tongue against Kelly’s as her hands moved between working at her breasts or messing with the tie for Kelly’s shorts.

Moving to straddle Abby’s waist Kelly leaned up from the kiss and stripped herself of her shirt, ignoring the scars that dotted her arms and two on her stomach from particularly nasty ghosts. Not giving Abby a chance to ask about them she bent back down and kissed her deeply. Abby’s hands skated across her skin, tugging her closer as Kelly’s hands pushed her shirt up again.

Breaking the kiss again Kelly tugged Abby’s shirt off and tossed it aside before bending down to attack her neck. Abby tipped her head back to give Kelly more room and she took advantage of that to bite down and suck on the skin. When she pulled away there was a red mark that threatened to turn into a very nice hickey on her skin. Chuckling to herself Kelly trailed kisses down her chest, working a hand under Abby to get to the hooks of her bra. With her breasts still covered Kelly nipped and kissed at the skin she could find before working on Abby’s nipples through the fabric.

“Kel…kel” Abby’s hands gripped into her curls, tugging tightly as Kelly worked on her breasts before she finally managed to snap the hooks off. Leaning up Kelly yanked the bra away and tossed it aside. Before she could bend down again Abby sat upright and pulled her into a kiss, holding her tightly against her chest as the two kissed. Kelly’s hands pushed into Abby’s hair and pulled slightly, getting her to tip back again so Kelly could pin her down.

“Behave yourself.” Kelly teased, pushing herself down Abby so she was now on her legs. Fingers moving quickly she started to undo the button and zipper of Abby’s pants. A lift of her hips helped Kelly tug her pants off and to the side. Bending down Kelly nipped at Abby’s stomach and hips, hands tugging on her underwear to pull it away as well. With her naked Kelly leaned up and kissed Abby deeply, shifting herself so she was between her legs instead of straddling her.

Nipping at her lips Kelly started to inch her hand’s way down Abby’s body, shifting down and pushing her legs open. She might not have been with anyone but Kelly knew what she enjoyed and figured that she’d learn the rest along the way. Shifting slightly Kelly distracted Abby with her kiss as her fingers searched between Abby’s legs.

Kelly’s fingers twitched slightly when she noticed just how wet Abby was but she pressed forward, slipping her fingers into the coarse hair between her legs and searched for her opening. Her thumb shifted up and searched for Abby’s clit and found it easily enough. Abby gasped into her mouth as Kelly rubbed her thumb against the little button in gently strokes, her other two fingers finding her opening and easily sliding in.

The move got Abby’s hips bucking up, nearly knocking Kelly from her rhythm. Shifting her hips Kelly pinned Abby down further, moving from Abby’s lips to her neck. This allowed her to moan and gasp as Kelly kept working her fingers in gentle pumps, thumb still riding her clit.  
“Ke….ke..” Apparently Abby was enjoying herself since she was nearly voiceless as Kelly shifting her hand and added a third finger into the mix. Her inner muscles were flexing around her fingers, squeezing her for all she was worth.

Curling her fingers up and applying a steady pressure to Abby’s clit was what finally brought the woman over the edge. Abby’s hands caught on Kelly’s shoulders and her nails dug in, a scream caught in her throat as Kelly kept pumping her fingers as the other rode out her electric high.  
Gently pulling her fingers out Kelly flexed her hand as Abby lay under her panting heavily, eyes closed and face blushing.

“Don’t you look pretty?” Kelly teased, kissing her cheek softly. “Why do you re-Ah!”  
As she was speaking Abby apparently got enough of her gooey muscles together to roll them over, pinning Kelly to the bed this time. Blinking up at her Kelly raised an eyebrow which prompting laughter from Abby as the other woman shifted over her.

“Hello.” Kelly said blandly, getting another laugh as Abby bent to kiss her deeply. She could feel the other’s hands go down to her shorts and start tugging at the laces to untie it. When her shorts were loose enough Kelly lifted her hips up, allowing Abby to tug her shorts off and to the side. Abby pulled away from the kiss and pressed kisses down her body, shifting Kelly’s legs over her shoulders. Lifting onto her elbows Kelly watched as Abby gave her a sweet smile before leaning forward.

At the first touch of Abby’s tongue against her Kelly dropped back onto her bed, hands moving down Abby’s hair and gripping tightly. Abby pressed closer, lips and tongue working to bring Kelly up to her peak.

“Abb….ah” Kelly’s voice croaked slightly as she felt one of Abby’s hands work itself between her legs and joined her lips and tongue. Her body tensed as she felt herself climbing to her end, hands still buried in Abby’s hair and she was sure she was pulling strands loose but Abby didn’t seem to mind.

Her body felt like it was on fire as she raced to her end and her spine snapped upright when she finally hit it. Her bruised side burned angrily at the move but the pleasure of hitting her peak completely blocked it out.

Panting softly as her body slowly relaxed onto the bed again Kelly’s eyes stayed closed as she felt Abby shifting from between her legs and crawled up to her side and laid against her again.  
“Okay…I think we missed a step.” Kelly laughed, tipping her head slightly to look at Abby.

“Nope. We met, confessed, went on a date, and you bought me dinner.” Abby said, ticking off on her fingers.

“The ghost hunt was a date?”

“I’m counting it.”

Kelly laughed softly, shifting to nuzzle against Abby. The move also brought her into sight of her alarm clock and she sat upright. “Shit!”

“Classes?”

“Shit!” Kelly quickly scrambled out of bed, Abby laughing softly on the bed as she searched her dresser for clothing. Tossing the clothes onto the bed she headed into her bathroom and started the shower to clean up.

“Which ones today?” Abby followed her in, grabbing the towels from her cupboard.

“English and a lecture in two of my history course. I’ve got to turn in two projects today and they take points off if I turn them in late.” Adjusting the temperature Kelly hopped into the shower. Mentally she was doing the time she had left. She was gonna have to go to class with wet hair since there was no time for it to dry out before she left.

Abby chuckled behind her as she started to wash her hair, trading places with her under the spray as Kelly let the shampoo sit in her hair as she scrubbed at her body. Trading places with Abby again she rinsed off and hopped out of the shower, leaving Abby to wash up as she quickly dried off and went to get dressed. Checking the time she hissed through her teeth seeing that she was going to be cutting it short. Changing quickly she hurried out and filled the cat’s foods dishes up so they wouldn’t be screaming when she came home.

Heading back into the bathroom she quickly kissed Abby as she stepped out of the shower. “Lock the door behind you please. I gotta run or I’ll miss my bus.”

“I don’t have a key.” Abby protested as Kelly tugged her shoes on.

“Just lock the door knob. My neighbor across the hall is agoraphobic and keeps his eyes on the hall. If someone tries to break in, he’ll call the cops.”

Kelly would have to remember to give him a plate of goodies since she would be requiring his habit in order to make sure her apartment stayed safe. Kissing Abby again she headed out the door, calling a farewell over her shoulder as the door swung shut behind her.

Racing down to the streets she managed to catch the bus just before it got ready to push off. Collapsing into the bench she sighed and checked her bag to make sure she grabbed everything she needed for classes.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, seeing a text from Abby.

_‘You’re lucky you’re cute otherwise I’d feel pouty.’_

_‘Leftover soup in the fridge.’_

_‘You’re forgiven.’_


	14. Getting things done

“I am a creature of hate.”

Instead of going back to her apartment Kelly went to the firehouse. After announcing her presence she shed her bag and coat into her chair and went to flop face first into the library.

“What’s wrong baby?” Patty gently poked at her with her foot since Kelly had fallen at her feet.

“Three pop quizzes. All three of my lectures were pop quizzes instead.” Kelly’s voice was muffled by the carpet. “I am hatred reborn.”

Patty just laughed softly, and Kelly could hear her shifting back into her chair and letting Kelly lay on the floor for a while.

“Kel?”

“There is no Kelly. Only hatred.”

Abby laughed softly, coming over and kneeling down next to her. “Would hatred like to get up off the floor and help Holtz?”

“….I retain the right to be hesitant in my answer.”

“She wants to test something that she thought of after the last ghost.”

Grumbling slightly Kelly pushed herself up to her knees and raised an eyebrow at Abby who just chuckled and kissed her softly.

“It’s nothing bad, but you’re the only one who heard the beacon buzzing. Holtz is pretty sure the sound is what caused the ghost to get pissy with us so she needs you to help her figure out if she stopped it.”

“Mm.” Leaning forward Kelly kissed her back gently before standing up. “Alright. Let’s see what’s what.”

Moving from the library Kelly headed to Holtzmann’s table, seeing her already working. “Alright Holtz, hit me”

“Hold on. I think I got it.” After soldering a few more pieces in place Holtzmann turned the beacon on. A few wisps popped up, mostly centered around the containment unit and Kelly tilted her head slightly to listen.

“It’s a low hum now. I mean I still hear it but this is way better than before.”

“Awesome!” Turning the beacon off Holtzmann did a fist pump before raising her hand for a high five. Kelly answered it easily, shaking her hand afterwards when Holtzmann hit it rather hard. “Now we can lure them without getting shit thrown at us.”

“At me you mean.”

“Us, you, same thing. Point is, no more monkey wrenches.”

“Mmhph.”

Abby came over to the pair, leaning over Kelly to see what Holtzmann had done. The two went into a long scientific talk over how Holtzmann had fixed the issue with the noise. Kelly tuned them out since it didn’t make sense to her, instead leaning back into Abby and tipping her head to nuzzle against her neck. Abby’s hand circled around to rest against her stomach, gently petting as she happily discussed plans with Holtzmann for other projects.

Yawning tiredly Kelly nuzzled her face closer into Abby’s neck, eyes closing as she rested. Abby’s hands petting her stomach lulled her into a mild nap and she noticed that Abby had started to rock them gently.

“This is not a comfortable position to take a nap in.” Kelly muttered into Abby’s neck, feeling her laugh rumble against her back.

“You’re the one falling asleep.”

“You’re the one rocking me.”

Abby laughed again, tipping her head to nuzzle into Kelly’s curls. She kept rocking her though, still petting her stomach softly as went back to her conversation with Holtzmann.

“How’s your side?” Erin’s voice was quiet as she came up to Kelly’s side, waking her up from her nap.

“Achy, but I can ignore it. Where were you hiding?”

“Upstairs. Can we talk?”

“Mm.” Wiggling out of Abby’s arms Kelly followed after Erin with a tired yawn. They stopped near the stairs, a good distance from the others “What’s up Professor?”

“I just….I know you talked about being able to physically interact with ghosts but I hadn’t realized how true that was.” Erin’s voice stuttered slightly as if she was policing her words.

“It’s a bit weird seeing something dead interact with the living?”

“Yeah. The only time we ever had physical interactions with the ghosts they were highly ionized and super charged.”

“What was charging them?”

“Someone created devices to charge their energy and did it to try and start an apocalypse.”

“Trendy.”

Erin laughed at that, shaking her head before looking at Kelly carefully. “Has it always been this bad?”

“I’ve had them break my bones, bruise me to the point I couldn’t breathe. Two stabbed me.” Lifting her shirt, she showed off the two scars on her stomach. One was a thin mark, made from a bowie knife a Confederate soldier’s ghost wielded. The other was a thicker knotted mark she earned from an old cowboy ghost. “And that’s between the usually slapping me around or grabbing me. It’s always been this bad yeah.”

“Do you have any idea why?”

“They don’t like me? I can’t give them what they want? I don’t know. I’ve met non angry ghosts before. I’ve interacted with plenty that just wanted to talk. But some just can’t be reasoned with.”

“Hm.”

Kelly shrugged slightly, pushing some of her curls out of her face. “I gave up trying with the angry ones a while ago.”

“Understandable.” Erin patted her hand gently before the two of them headed back to the group.   
Abby opened her arm out to Kelly so she could lean into her, though didn’t break conversation with Holtzmann even as Kelly nuzzled into her neck again.

“My brain is fried.” Kelly groused, sighing softly.

“I think that’s my cue to get this one home.” Abby laughed, shaking her head slightly. “Keep working on it Holtz. If anyone can figure it out it’s you.”

Holtzmann laughed and the two waved goodbye to the rest of them, Kelly collecting her bag and jacket on the way out. Hopping on the bus they talked in a low voice about Holtzmann’s projects to try and counter her natural abilities. Apparently the main issue was a power source that wasn’t a mini nuke strapped to Kelly’s body.

Before they entered her apartment building Kelly stopped by a bakery that was near the building and picked up a box of cookies. Knocking on her neighbor’s door she gave him the cookies, getting a laugh from him as he realized why she had done it. They talked for a moment before Kelly went to her own door and unlocked it so she and Abby could enter. Tossing her bag aside Kelly went to her bedroom to change.

“There’s some takeout menus in the kitchen.” She called to Abby as she pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top. “Go nuts.”

Brushing out her curls again she yawned and walked back into the living room, waving to Abby who was on the landline in the kitchen. Settling on the couch she started to flip through her channels, trying to find something to watch as Irusan and Kellas jumped on her to make themselves comfortable. Abby came over and curled up on the couch next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as Kelly kept flipped through the channels.

“Ordered Chinese. Anything good on?”

“Nada.” Handing the remote to Abby Kelly leaned her head into her and yawned. “Granted I’ll probably fall asleep half way through anything you put on. Especially after we eat.”

Abby chuckled and stopped the channel on a rerun of How It’s Made. The droning voice caused Kelly to start to fall asleep again, face buried in Abby’s neck as she sighed. Abby’s hand came up and started to scratch at her head, relaxing her even further into sleep.

Knocks on the door shook both of them up.

“I’ll get it.” Kelly yawned, standing up from the couch and stretching. “How much was it?”

“Thirty-six eighty.”

“Mm.” Grabbing her jacket she pulled out her wallet and grabbed out some cash. More knocks echoed on her door and she sighed. “I’m coming. Keep your pants on.”

Abby laughed from the couch as Kelly walked to the front door, opening it up with a sigh. But instead of the Chinese delivery guy it was someone else.

“Kelly?”

“Mom?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cues the horror movie sound*


	15. Final Talks

Lileas Quinn was a terrifying woman, and even in the years away from her mother Kelly’s natural instinct was to start apologizing for everything she did and didn’t do. Taking a deep breath Kelly rolled her shoulders back and reminded herself she stared down ghosts of murders before.  
She wasn’t going to freak out over her mother being there.

“How did you get my address?”

“Simon and Mark came home last week and told me. May I come in?” Lileas was already pushing past her daughter as she spoke.

“No.”

“No? Young lady don’t start getting snippy with me.”

“I have cats.”

That stopped her mother up short and she stepped back. “I see.”

“There’s a lobby downstairs. We can talk there.” Kelly shut the door and jogged over to Abby who looked between her and the door. “Here’s the cash for dinner.”

“You gonna be okay?” Abby said, grabbing her hand and keeping her close.

“I don’t know.” Leaning forward Kelly kissed Abby gently, nuzzling her nose. “But if I ignore her she’ll just keep knocking.”

“Mm.”

Heading back out she motioned for her mom to follow her. The lobby was empty besides Ricky who shifted in his seat so he could keep his eyes on both her and the door. Taking a seat in one of the lobby chairs she motioned for her to sit as well. As Lileas settled Kelly took a moment to look her mother over. The years hadn’t changed her; she still had the bright red hair with grey streaks, the same light green eyes that seemed to disapprove of Kelly and the same freckled skin that held a ton of wrinkles.

“Mark didn’t mention a roommate.”

“She’s my girlfriend.”

If Lileas had been holding something she would’ve dropped it. The glare was bitter, but all she did was suck on her tongue and shift in her seat.

“Kelly…why did you leave without saying anything?”

“Because if I had said anything you would’ve stopped me.”

“Of course I would’ve! You were moving out to New York for something as silly as college! You could’ve gone to college back home!”

“Before or after I was lobotomized?”

Lileas flinched at that “You heard that conversation? What did I tell you about eavesdropping?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“….The lobotomy was to be a final solution. Derek wanted to try a series of medications first, and then move onto electrical therapy.”

“Derek also wanted me to stop thinking about college plans because I was to mentally ill to leave the house.”

Derek Henderson was her last psychiatrist, a specialist brought in when Kelly scared the last one off by talking to the ghost of his long dead great-grandmother and telling him what she said. He wasn’t the first to push medicines on her, Kelly had long ago learned to tongue her medicines and spit them back out, but he was the first to get physical with her. Any talk of ghosts got her wrist slapped.

He called it physical therapy and her parents signed off on it.

Kelly supposed that for someone who had a mental illness different forms of therapy might work, but since she wasn’t in need of his services it was just an hour of torture.

“Yes well….you seemed to have proved him wrong about that.”

“Funny. I wonder what else you all were wrong about.”

“Don’t start on the ghost thing again Kelly.”

“Hmm.”

Sighing softly Lileas rubbed her forehead and leaned away from her. “I didn’t come here to fight you.”

“Why did you? You know damn well I want nothing to do with you or the rest of the family.”

“You talk to Scott.”

“Scott never hurt me, and would try and get the rest of you to stop.”

“Your brothers never hurt you Kelly. You need to stop blaming them for it.”

The deep breath Kelly took to start yelling pulled at her bruise and caused her to wince, cutting off her anger quickly. Probably a good thing since she didn’t want to start yelling here in her lobby.

“I’m not going to try and convince you of what happened. If you want to be blind to what I had to deal with then that’s on you. I’m away from that mess.”

Lileas sighed softly and shook her head “Kelly-“

“Don’t. I don’t want to argue. Just say your piece and go back to Oklahoma.”

“Fine. We miss you. In the six years since you’ve been gone your father and I have been worried sick. You don’t answer your texts or calls, you only speak to Scott and even then you don’t tell him anything beyond the fact you’re still alive and still in school.”

“That’s all you need to know. You don’t miss me. You’re guilty because I’m proving you and my doctors wrong. I’m not sick. I’m not some invalid who needed to be watched. And I’m doing perfectly fine on my own.”

Lileas sucked on her tongue again, eyes darting around. “Does your girlfriend know that you’ve been in therapy since first grade?”

“Yeah she does. And she’s on my side in the argument.” It hadn’t surprised her that Lileas would try and guilt her about something. One of her earliest psychiatrists told her mother that forcing her to admit things would help her recognize her mother’s authority in matters. Maybe that would’ve worked if she was actually hiding things from her.

“Hmph.”

“Was there anything else?”

“….Did Scott tell you that Cian and Sally had another child?” Cian was her youngest cousin on her father’s side, two years younger than her and the child of her father’s fourth sister. He had gotten his girlfriend pregnant during Kelly’s senior year and the resulting madness had been the perfect opportunity for Kelly to disappear.

“I was told. First born was Moreen yeah? Who’s this one?”

“Fion.”

“Hm. Alright. Anything else? Or can I show you to the door.”

“Kelly I did not do anything to deserve this hostility.”

“…..” Kelly stood up from her chair, taking deep breaths and clenching her fists for a few moments before sighing. “I am going back to my apartment. I am going back to my girlfriend who believes in me and who’s friends like me. I’m going back to my cats and my life. You? You can go to hell.”

“Kelly!”

“Ricky if she follows me call the cops.” With that Kelly marched off, hands coming up to grip her curls. She could admit she was a prideful woman, but even she had the self-awareness to know when she messed up. Both of her parents were so wrapped up in their own heads that they thought they were always right even when the evidence was against them.

Slamming her door shut with a bang Kelly cursed under her breath as Abby poked her head out from the kitchen.

“Chinese is here.”

“Great. Too bad they don’t deliver beer.”

“That bad?” Abby came out and wrapped her arms around Kelly’s waist, tugging her close.

“Not as bad as it could’ve been. She’s just got her head shoved so far up her ass it’s not even funny.” Kelly grumbled, burying her face into Abby’s neck and sighing. “I don’t like feeling like I’m a bad daughter and that’s what she’s always made me feel.”

“Fuck her. You’ve done nothing wrong.” Abby said, rubbing her back gently and rocking them. “Not your fault all of your ghostly buddies decided to avoid her.”

Kelly laughed softly, shaking her head. “I’d avoid her if I had a choice.”

“Well now you do. Come on, let’s get you something to eat.”

Nodding Kelly allowed Abby to tug her into the kitchen where she was doling out the food. Pausing Kelly leaned into Abby and kissed her deeply.

“Thank you.”

“Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To not flood my personal I made a side blog http://whoyougonnacallseries.tumblr.com/ where I'll answer questions about the series or post references to the characters


	16. One found, two wished to lose

When Kelly walked into the gallery she noted that the painting had been removed and Desmond looked stressed out.

“Kids give you a hard time?” She teased, setting her bag down.

“Did you know about this?!”

“You got their history. You should’ve been ready for it.”

Desmond stopped short of his pacing and blinked at her. “Oh….right.”

Kelly hummed softly in answer, taking her seat and looking up at him. “No more haunted paintings.”

“Agreed.”

Laughing softly Kelly turned her computer on and logged on, timing in and starting her clock. Night shift was the slowest when there wasn’t a showing. Along with Desmond who was there all day there was the janitor Frank and security guard Catherine. Kelly’s job at night was mostly to keep the phones and double check the schedules. Any sales that happened in the morning that hadn’t been picked up before had to be marked and put aside. She would have to check and recheck the hung paintings to make sure they matched their plaque.

By the end of the night she typically had worked her heels to the bone.

Once she was logged in the computer pinged up a few paintings that had to be checked for their sale tag and a series of notes from Anna begging her to never leave for a week again. Desmond wouldn’t call her in which meant Anna had to show up for work or get into massive trouble.

Sighing softly she shifted through the paperwork that had been left for her to deal with and got up from her desk, heading to the back room where sold paintings were stored.

“ _Moon over Silver_? Check. _Lovers bound_? Check. _Missing you missing me_? …Not check.” Kelly paused, looking at the space where the painting should’ve been. Sighing softly she grabbed the walkie talkie she carried and pressed the talk button. “Desmond did whoever buy _Missing you missing me_ take it home with them?”

“No they didn’t. It’s scheduled for pick up tomorrow.”

“Well it’s not in the back room. Is it still hanging up?”

“Kelly it’s not in its spot.” Catherine’s voice crackled into the conversation. “The plaque is there but it’s not.”

“Great just when we were getting rid of it.” Kelly muttered before speaking into the walkie talkie again. “Cat can you check the videos while I search the room?”

“Gotcha.”

“Frankie can you sit at my desk until I get back?”

“Got it.”

Setting the first two paintings aside Kelly searched the others, carefully removing their wrappings and checking the names on the back of the painting. _Missing you missing me_ was a local artist’s masterpiece that creeped her out, it was a self-portrait of the artist with his ex-girlfriend’s face hidden in various places around the painting.

She guessed some people found it romantic, but Kelly met the guy and was fairly certain his ex left for a reason.

“Found it.” Frank’s voice came over the walkie talkie. “Anna didn’t put it in the back room. She left it in the sales office.”

Kelly sighed softly and fixed up the paintings again before coming out of the back room. Frank stood just outside the door with the painting in hand.

“I was about to ask if the brats from the painting snatched it.”

“Nope. But they caused Desmond no end of trouble. First day of the showing they’re gone from their painting. You should’ve seen him flipping out.”

“Poor Dessy.” Kelly laughed softly, taking the painting from him and walking back into the room. Wrapping it carefully she grabbed her paper and checked it off. With that done she checked over the rest of them, sighing happily when none of the other paintings turned up missing.

Going back to her desk she left a note for Anna warning her that Desmond was probably gonna have some words with her about the painting. Desmond was a good boss, but leaving the painting in the saleroom could’ve lead to it getting resold by one of the assistants that hadn’t realized it was already taken.

She wouldn’t get into trouble, just a serious talking down and probably a note in her file. When Kelly first started she made similar mistakes and Desmond never really punished her.

The rest of the night was spent finishing up her paperwork and helping Frank set up a few paintings that were on sale. About an hour before closing her phone started buzzing. Opening it she raised her eyebrow at the caller id.

_‘DO NOT ANSWER!!’_

Sighing softly she refused the call and turned her ringer off. That id was reserved for her mother while her father had _‘SERIOUSLY DO NOT ANSWER!’_ since right after her mother called or texted he would as well. Apparently they thought tag teaming her like that would get her to answer them.

It kept buzzing throughout the last hour, obviously wanting her attention. Stuffing her phone into the bottom of her bag at closing she ignored it as she took a bus to the fire station.

“Who’s home?” She called up the stairs as she climbed them.

“An axe killer and his victims!”

“Evening Holtz.” Coming onto the second floor she waved at the woman who was bent over her desk poking at something.

“Ah another willing victim!”

“You’re freaky. Who gave you sugar?”

All that got her was laughter as she tossed her bag into her chair. Patty’s space was empty, signaling that she had probably gone home and Erin’s jacket was gone. There was no major sign of if Abby was there or not so Kelly was unsure.

“Uh Kels? Your bag is buzzing. You got a wasp in there?”

“It’s my cell. My parents have been buzzing me for the last hour.”

“Bleh.”

“Hey Kel!” Abby called as she came from the third floor, holding her arms out to her. Kelly smiled and wrapped her arms around Abby’s waist, leaning in to kiss her gently. “Anything fun happen?”

“Misplaced painting, the kids tormented Desmond, and my parents are calling.” As if on cue Kelly’s phone buzzed in her bag again. “You?”

“Bust turned out to be nothing and Holtz has been fussing with new toys.”

“Fun.”

“Bob’s Mortuary, you kill them we chill them. What’s the corpse number?”

At the weird comment both Abby and Kelly frowned and looked towards Holtzmann who had Kelly’s phone in her hands and was smiling brightly.

“Holtzmann!”

“Kelly? Ain’t got a corpse numbered Kelly, but I can pull the files and see what’s what. Can I put you on hold? No? Well you’re going on hold.” With that Holtzmann hung the phone up and smiled to the pair.

“What the hell was that?!” Kelly demanded, looking between Holtzmann and her cell.

“Got ‘em to stop calling didn’t I?”

Kelly paused at that, clicking her tongue and sighing. “Yeah…alright that’s true.”

Holtzmann laughed softly, clapping. “Whoo! So what should I say the next time?”

“I don’t think they’re gonna be calling back anytime soon Holtz.” Abby laughed, picking up Kelly’s phone and tucking it away.

“Damn. I call dibs on answering it if they call again.”

Kelly took a seat across from Holtzmann and noticed that whatever she was working on was smaller than usual.

“New gun?”

“Nah, trying to figure out something to block you so you don’t cause havoc when you decide to go wandering through a graveyard drunk again.”

“I very much doubt I’ll manage to find a graveyard while drunk in this city.”

Holtzmann laughed and soldered another piece into place. “I need ya to swing by tomorrow so we can try and suss out a power source that won’t make you break out in hives or cause hair loss.”

“….Yeah not losing my hair would be nice.”


	17. The Start of fear

“Don’t move.”

“Don’t come near me with that thing then!”

Holtzmann and Kelly faced off against each other on opposite sides of the work table. Holtzmann was still looking for a power source to combat Kelly’s ability and while Kelly had agreed to help out she didn’t agree to be shocked.

And the last power source had zapped her something awful. She was sure her hair was still on end.

“Come on it won’t shock you.”

“You said that about the last one.”

“Loose wire.”

“Mmmm.”

Holtzmann leaned over and grabbed her arm, slapping the new device onto it. It looked like a Pipboy from the Fallout games and was rather heavy. Hefting her arm she waved it, frowning at the weight.

“Heavy.”

“Yeah, but if the power source works I can look into making it lighter.”

Sighing softly Kelly held still as Holtzmann leaned over the device and started messing with it. Unlike before there was no uneasy hum of charge followed by an electrical surge rushing up her arm.

“Huh. It doesn’t hurt.”

“Whoo!”

“What is it?”

“Solar powered.” Holtzmann sat back down as Kelly lifted her arm around and checked over the device. “I’m not sure yet how to compact it down, but I’ll find a way.”

“What exactly is it powering?”

“A little magnetic motor that unbalances your charge and kinda disconnects you from the ghosts.”

Kelly blinked slightly before frowning. “I understood that.”

“You’re getting smarter!”

Kelly huffed slightly and sat down, pulling it off of her wrist and rubbing at the skin underneath. “If it can’t be compacted what happens?”

“I start over. No big deal.”

“Hm.”

Holtzmann went quiet as she bent over the device and started working on it again. Kelly watched her for a few moments before wandering into the library.

Patty’s books were most focused on New York’s history but she had a few books that suggested a few things that could find their way to New York.

Settling into a chair Kelly pulled out one of the books that focused on demigods and stronger spirits and sank into her reading.

The book had a lot of information about creatures that were known for interacting with humans on a level, even if that level was messing with them. Kelly didn’t like the sound of some of them but there was only a small chance that any of these creatures would find their way to New York.

“Aren’t you two cute while you’re working?” Abby’s voice caused both Holtzmann and Kelly to look up from their respective tasks. Erin was out on her day off and Patty was with her uncle helping his funeral home to repay the new hearse. “Anything good?”

“I got the power source! Now I just gotta compact it down.”

“I’m mentally hoping we never come across these creatures.”

That got Kelly a laugh from the others as Abby came come to check out what she was reading. Kelly had stopped on a page dedicated to a creature that ate the hearts of humans. “..Okay yeah I’m agreeing with you on that.”

Kelly laughed softly and closed the book, tipping her head to kiss Abby’s cheek gently. “Mayor’s office say anything good?”

“Just the usual bullshit. Nothing new.”

“Hm.”

Standing up with a yawn Kelly put the book back in place and cracked her neck. “Should we go get lunch?”

“Yeah. Hey Holtz what do you want?”

“Mexican!”

“There’s a place I saw just down the road.” Kelly offered, grabbing her coat and tugging it on. Abby nodded and wrapped her arm around Kelly’s waist as they headed down the stairs and out.  
The streets of New York were never quiet, and that was amazingly true at noon. Abby’s arm around Kelly’s waist tightened whenever they were jostled by the crowd and Kelly wrapped her arm around Abby’s shoulder in order to stay close to the woman.

A lifetime of being stared at and learning to dodge hits taught Kelly to notice when people were keeping a to close eye on her. So while Abby was more focused on finding the Mexican restaurant Kelly was picking up on the stares the two were getting.

It wasn’t surprising. New York was a tolerant place but that didn’t mean everyone in it would be as tolerant. Some people just couldn’t handle the fact that two people might want each other despite their personal convictions.

But so long as none of them approached the two Kelly wouldn’t say anything to Abby about the stares.

Once inside the restaurant Abby quickly checked their menu for what sounded good as Kelly spoke to a waitress about her preferences. With the lists from both they compared and finally ordered a small ton of food.

Carrying it back to the firehouse was a bit of a trail but eventually they managed to get the bags in and set on a spare table. Holtzmann quickly abandoned her work to forage through the bags for food, taking a good chunk of it back to her table as Kelly and Abby set down with their own.

Lunch was passed primarily in silence since all three of them were happily digging into their food.  
After lunch Kelly had to head off, needing to get ready for work that night. She gave Abby a kiss and promised to swing by after work.

Anna was happy to hand over the work and thanked her a few times for the note. Apparently the buyer for the painting was some rich CEO who thought the painting was ‘deep’. Kelly had to resist gagging at that.

Settling into her chair she noticed there was a note saying a new painting needed to be hung up. Paintings only got hung up at the end of the day so she ignored it for now and went through the rest of the work. Since she was doing the afternoon and night shift today there was more action than she usually did. It was nice, though some of the local artists needed to learn that not every gallery wanted to show their pieces.

As the day drew on Kelly kept working, mostly sitting at her desk though Frank did need some help moving a sculpture to clean behind it after a little kid dropped their soda.

“Hey Quinn?” Kelly looked up from where she and Frank were shifting the sculpture back into place to see Desmond there.

“Yeah?”

“Can you help me hang up _Underlined Sadness_?”

“Huh?”

“It’s a new painting we got in.”

“Oh that one! Yeah.” Kelly smiled to Frank and moved away from the sculpture and followed after Desmond to the back room. “What’s the deal with this one?”

“No clue. It came in through the main office but there’s no history attached to it.”

“Weird.”

The two found the painting and Kelly wrinkled her nose. It was a blue abstract painting and Kelly couldn’t determine any shapes from it. She understood that art was opinion based life but she preferred things with easy answers.

Pulling on her gloves Kelly helped Desmond pick it up, frowning slightly at a tremor that went up her arms. Sighing she shook her head, figuring that it was remnants of Holtzmann’s first experiment that morning.

The painting was hung in one of the side rooms and Desmond carefully attached a plaque to the wall that stated the title but there was no other history attached to it. Kelly frowned again and left the room, shaking her hands which still trembled.

As the final hour drew Kelly noticed a weird pressure building in her ears, and it wouldn’t go away no matter how much she popped them.

“Hey Kelly.” Catherine’s voice crackled over the walkie talkie. “Can you check room E? There’s some weird glow in there.”

“Got it Cat.” Getting up from the desk she paused, noting the blue glow that was coming down the hall from room E. Pulling out her cell she dialed Abby’s number.

“Abby can ya’ll get to the gallery? I think we have a problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The creature mentioned is an Aswang....they are terrifying


	18. Beatdown

“It’s gonna take us five minutes to get there Kel, be careful!” Abby’s voice was tight as she spoke, Kelly nodding to herself as she hung up the cell. The glow hadn’t changed or moved so Kelly took a deep breath and headed to it, fingers tight around her cell.

“Hello?” She said, stepping around the corner. “Great I’m a lead in a horror movie.” Kelly muttered to herself as she entered the room fully.

The ghost was floating there peacefully, a short woman wearing plain clothing. Kelly didn’t study historical fashion so she couldn’t tell what century the clothes were from, so she’d have to rely on the ghost.

“Hi?” It didn’t look at her so Kelly tried her other languages.

“ _Halò_?” No reaction

“ _Dia dhuit_?” That got the ghost to look at her and Kelly smiled.

And then was sent flying out of the room.

Slamming into the opposite wall she groaned and landed with a thud, shaking her head slightly. Through the ringing in her ears she could hear Catherine’s voice freaking out of the phone.

“Must be an English woman.” She muttered to herself, standing upright and going back into the room. “Don’t do that again.” The ghost gave her a glare and Kelly had to catch herself on a wall to keep from being thrown back out. “I’m serious!”

There was no verbal response from the ghost so Kelly waited until she wasn’t trying to throw her to tackle it to the ground. She hadn’t been expecting that and Kelly was able to pin her down.

“Being on your frequency comes in handy.” Grabbing her walkie talkie, she spoke into it. “Cat the Ghostbusters are on their way here. Help them get into the room quickly while I handle our guest.”

Catherine’s confirmation was cut off by the ghost wiggling a hand free to scratch at Kelly’s face, jerking away from the sharp nails Kelly hissed and slammed her own fist into its throat. Despite the hit the ghost kept scratching at her, nails finding her legs and digging in.

Kelly kept her weight on her though, years of fighting with her brother’s having taught her the best way to pin someone down and keep them down. Granted her brothers outweighed her and she was only keeping this one in place thanks to surprise and the woman being lighter than her.

Noises from the front drew her attention away for a moment, giving the ghost another chance to swing at her face. Hissing through her teeth Kelly blinked through the blood from her cuts and glared down at the ghost.

“You’re annoying.”

“Kelly! Move!”

At the order Kelly rolled off of the ghost, slamming into one of the walls just as the ghost was hit with four lasers. Watching it get sucked into the trap Kelly sighed softly and laid on the floor, feeling blood trickle from her legs and face as Abby and Holtzmann checked the trap to make sure it was closed.

“Kel!” Abby’s voice caused her to push upright and she tried to smile at Abby.

“That was six minutes. I counted.” She joked, hoping to break the tension.

“What is with you and getting your ass kicked by these things?”

“Must be my charm.” She spoke through a wince as Abby gently checked over her facial scratches. “It’s nothing bad. Just a few scratches. They’ll heal in no time.”

“I told you to be careful!”

“I didn’t realize it was going to throw me.”

Abby just tutted and kept checking her over, Patty coming over to help Kelly stand up. Cracking her spine Kelly looked over just in time for Desmond and Catherine to rush in.

“What happened?!” Desmond’s voice squeaked at the sight of the Ghostbusters and his receptionist bleeding.

“Ghost. Mean ghost.” Kelly pointed to the painting of _Underlined Sadness_ as she spoke, which had lost its blue coloring and was just a portrait of the woman she had just gotten into a fight with.

“Holy sh….Kelly are you alright!” Catherine came over and tipped her head back to look at the scratches on her face.

“Doing good. Not the worst I’ve dealt with.”

“Do I wanna know?”

“Nope.”

“How can you be so blasé about bleeding, Quinn?!”

“I’m used to it, Dessy.”

Desmond’s face twisted for a moment as his mind went to a weird place no doubt. Laughing Kelly looked around the room.

“Well I didn’t break anything during the fight and the room isn’t trashed.”

“Not the important thing here, Quinn.”

Kelly raised an eyebrow at that. “I’m fine, Desmond. By tomorrow morning the bleeding will have stopped and I’ll just be left with some nasty red marks.” And the bruise on her side, but it was better not to mention that.

‘I…eh….fine. Go get cleaned up.”

“Yep.” Kelly went to the bathroom and was cleaning up her face as Abby followed her in.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m used to it, Abby. She’s not the first to scratch up my face up.”

“Why did she go after you?”

“I spoke to her in Irish and I guess she had a thing against them in her life.”

“So she scratched your face up for that?”

“No, that happened because I tackled her.”

“Why did you interact with her?!”

“Because we can get fined if any of those paintings or sculptures get damaged and I wasn’t about to leave a possibly violent spirit alone in a room with it. And if I didn’t go in and check Catherine would’ve.”

“She can’t get scratched up by them.”

“Yeah but she can get hurt.”

Abby sighed softly and took the paper towel from Kelly and finished cleaning up the blood on her face. “How are your legs?”

“Sore, but they’ll survive.”

“And your side?”

“Aching, but no more than usual. I’m fine Abby. She’s not the first ghost to beat me down.”

That just got her a sigh from Abby as she kept cleaning up her face. The scratches stung something awful, but Kelly just ignored it.

“We’ll clean these out when we get back to the firehouse.”

“Mm. I still have closing to do.”

“I’ll handle your closing, Kelly.” Catherine’s head popped in for a moment to check on them. “Desmond says to head on home. Good thing tomorrow’s your day off huh?”

“I completely forgot about that.” Kelly laughed softly and nodded. “Thanks for handling the closing, Cat.”

“No worries, Kelly.”

At the firehouse Abby took care of cleaning out Kelly’s wounds while she hissed at the sting of alcohol on them. Thankfully the ghost hadn’t left anything in her skin so Abby just bandaged the wounds down.

“I’m staying over at your place tonight.” Abby’s voice was firm.

“I’ll be fine, Abby. I’ve handled these things alone before, and on my own.”

“Well that’s not happening tonight.” Abby left the bathroom to change out of her jumpsuit as Kelly trailed after her.

“You’re overreacting.”

“Overreacting about my girlfriend getting her ass kicked by some long dead woman?”

“I can handle a few scratches.”

“Now you’re just being stubborn.”

“Mm.”

“I’m not arguing this anymore. I’m staying over.”

Kelly just sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Halò is Scottish and Dia dhuit is Irish


	19. Sketching Times

In the end Kelly and Abby didn’t leave the firehouse. Instead they both curled up in the beds on the third floor, which had been redesigned to a sleeping quarters for the Ghostbusters some time ago. Kelly borrowed some clothing from Abby and the two fell asleep together.

By morning Kelly had been proven right. The cuts had stopped bleeding and were just angry and red, standing out against her skin. They were a little sensitive to the touch and Kelly winced as she checked them over in the bathroom.

Wrapping the ones on her legs so they wouldn’t chafe as she walked, Kelly left the bathroom and wandered back to the bed where Abby was still asleep. Sitting next to her she dug through her bag and pulled out her sketchbook and pencil. Flipping through to an empty page she started to sketch out the woman from last night. It was a rough sketch but she focused on getting her face done, giving herself a place to go back to when she had more time.

With the sketch done she flipped back to the drawing of the male ghost that got her in the side. Erasing some of the rough lines she started to detail his face out, shading in and filling out pieces she had done before. Drawing had always been her stress relief so she fell into an easy pattern and an almost trance as she finished the portrait.

“Why do you draw them? I mean I know why you did but why do you still?” Abby’s sleepy voice from behind caught her off guard and she jumped slightly.

“Someone loved them once. It helps me remember that if I sketch them.”

“Makes them more human?”

“…” Kelly sighed and rubbed her forehead. “For me there was never a distinction. I could interact with them as easily as I do with you. I didn’t see them as ghosts, just as blue people who sometimes got violent with me.”

“So you keep drawing them because it helps you connect to them. Even the ones who hurt you.”  
“Yep.”

“Hmm.” Abby moved to sit up and lean into Kelly, kissing her unscratched cheek. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine. They sting but there’s no blood. I’ve gotten worse from my cats.”

“I know I just…”

“Worry?”

“You’ve gotten seriously hurt by them before. How did your family handle it?”

“I never told them about the serious injuries. I just dealt with it on my own.”

“You got stabbed! Twice!”

“Duct tape and paper towels.”

Abby flinched behind her and held her closer. “I just don’t like the idea of you having to handle it on your own.”

“I’m tough.”

“I know. But I’m your girlfriend so I’m allowed to worry.”

Sighing softly Kelly tipped her head and nuzzled Abby’s temple. “I know. It’s cute.”

Abby grumbled slightly at that but sighed and shifted off of the bed. As she went and got dressed Kelly finished the sketch and signed it.

Putting her sketchbook back into her bag Kelly got up and tugged on her heels before heading downstairs to check on the others. Holtzmann was passed out on her work table while Patty and Erin were setting out breakfast for the group.

“Morning baby, you feeling better?”

“I’m fine. My face itches.”

“You look like you lost a fight with a cactus.” Holtzmann’s voice pipped up but the woman didn’t move from where she was still laying over the work table.

“Shush you.”

Erin came over and checked her face as well, making a tutting sound that sounded similar to Abby’s. Kelly wondered if it was her mom or Erin’s that they learned that noise from.

“At least they’re not bleeding anymore. How about the ones on your legs?”

“Same situation though not as itchy.”

“Mm.”

Once Abby came down the two ate breakfast together before Abby took Kelly back home. After feeding her cats Kelly settled in to finish the school work she still owed. She planned for a quiet day in.

And didn’t get it.

Rapid knocking on her door made her wince and mentally call to any god to ask why she was being tormented like this. Sighing softly she got up and checked through the peephole, not wanting another surprise like she had gotten with her mom. Raising an eyebrow at the sight of her landlord Eric there.

Opening the door she tipped her head in question.

“Quinn di….what happened to your face?”

“Accident, what’s going on?”

“Ricky told me about the fight you had with your mom in the lobby.” Kelly raised an eyebrow at that before remembering that Eric hadn’t been at the apartment in the last month due to a family emergency.

“It was just an argument.”

“Still, do I need to put a restraining order?”

“Doubt it. It’s gonna take a while for her to find a member of my family willing to come up here to bother me again.”

“I doubt it would take that long.”

“There’s roughly fifty people in my family.”

“…Do the Irish and Scots have rabbit blood or something?”

Kelly laughed, shaking her head. “We just like big families.”

“Alright. If you’re sure you’re fine.”

“I am. I had a feeling one of my parents would eventually come to see me I just didn’t expect when it would happen.”

“Alright. Call me if anything like that happens again.”

“Yep.”

Once Eric had left Kelly retook her seat and pulled out her cellphone, hitting her speed dial and putting it on speaker as she returned to typing.

“I expected a call sooner.”

“Got busy Scott. How’s it looking over there?”

“Which part? You pissing mom off or dad looking into legal ways to get you committed to a mental home?”

“Joyous. How’s that going for him?”

“Great until one of his sisters pointed out that you’re kinda proving everything he needs wrong.”

“I’m not a danger to myself or others, I’m healthy, I’m working and going to school.”

“Basically you’re a fully functional adult and he can’t find anything to get you in trouble.”

“Hurray for me.” Kelly saved her finished work and went onto the next one.

“How’s it going there?”

“What mom tell you?”

“That you’ve gone nuts and are sleeping with some random woman.”

“Mm.”

“Not gonna give me a name?”

“Nah…hey Scott?”

“Yeah?”

“…How did they find out I was in New York? You never told them.”

“News crew was doing a show about college life and during one of the segments you were shown sitting in the quad talking to someone.”

Kelly had to pause at that news, wincing slightly.

“Crap. I hadn’t realized the crew was there.”

“Yeah. Though in all fairness it didn’t say which college you went to. Just showed your picture.”

“Small miracles.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget you can find Dragon and I at http://whoyougonnacallseries.tumblr.com/


	20. Movie Night

Kelly had to focus on her work when a massive project came in through her history classes, texting Abby throughout the day about various ideas of setting fire to the school with her mind. Work was madness since Desmond was tearing through the paperwork for the last painting to figure out what the hell it was and how it got into their studio. By the time she came home she just passed out on her bed.

At the end of the week she felt that her brain was coming out of her ears with every line she typed. When she finally turned in the projects she went home and passed out for what felt like a month, though judging from her clock it was only about an hour.

Sighing tiredly she stripped down and went to take a shower.

As the water beat down on her Kelly yawned tiredly and leaned her hands against the shower wall. She felt grimy since she had forgone showers in order to get her work done on time. Scrubbing at her hair roughly she hummed softly at the heavy scent of her orange shampoo filled the steam in the bathroom. Kelly always preferred hot showers, probably a holdover from when she was usually the last to get into the shower and had to deal with cold water.

Just before she could start in on her skin someone started knocking on her front door. Growling softly she turned the shower off and wrapped herself in her towel. Wet feet slapped against the floor and she yanked her front door open in Abby’s surprised face.

“…Okay I have perfect timing.” Abby joked, looking Kelly up and down.

“I would argue against that.”

Abby laughed softly and came in, arms laden with bags of food. “You go finish up your shower. The others will be here soon.”

“Why is my house becoming party central?”

“Because you just had a week of hell so we’re gonna waste the night.”

“Mm.” Going back to her shower she scrubbed down with a lemon scented body wash, waking herself up more. Finally done she went to her bedroom and got dressed, coming out brushing her hair just as Patty and Erin came in. Holtzmann was already laid out on her couch with both Irusan and Kellas purring and rubbing over her.

“Traitors.” Kelly teased as she came over to Abby and gave her a kiss. “What’d you get for dinner?”

“I went to that pub you mentioned. The owners were more than happy enough to hook us up with loads of food.”

“They’re good people.”

The group settled in to eat, Holtzmann flipping through the channels to find something to watch as the rest ate their food.

“How do you have no good channels?” Holtzmann’s voice was dramatic as she flung herself onto the floor in protest.

“It’s called work and school. I don’t have time to watch TV so I don’t pay up for the good stuff. I’ve got a bunch of movies though they’re mostly random stuff or childhood favorites.”

Holtzmann took that as invitation as dug through her DVD collection to find something to put on. “There is a distressing lack of horror or ghost movies here.”

“I live that life.”

“No excuse.”

Finally she picked Willy Wonka and settled in with her own food. The group shifted to watch the movie, Patty and Kelly singing the Oompa Loompa songs as they came on which caused the others to laugh loudly. They ignored the laughter and kept singing, Kelly bobbing slightly in time with the music.

Once the movie was over it was Patty’s turn to pick and she chose Raiders of the Lost Ark. Erin and Abby spent most of the movie mocking the concepts that Indiana kept spouting out while Kelly was making fun of the history. Holtzmann and Patty were just watching, or laughing at the other three.

The rest of the night was passed with various movies being picked. After the food was eaten they laid around Kelly’s living room floor as they kept mocking the movies as her cats moved between them getting spoiled for pettings.

Eventually it got to the point they were starting to fall asleep on the floor.

“Give me a second.” Talking through a yawn Kelly got up off the floor and wandered to her closet. Pulling out various pillows and blankets she carried the mass back to the living room and dumped it on the floor. “Go nuts.”

Grabbing her own blanket and pillow from her bedroom she laid herself out on the floor right in front of her TV, leaving the couch to Patty who had taken it after Holtzmann got off the first time.  
Abby came over with her own items and the two piled the blankets on top of each other so they could curl together. Erin laid near the couch and Holtzman came over and flopped on Abby’s other side. Irusane and Kellas bounced around for a few moments before one settled on Holtzmann’s back and the other went for Patty’s chest.

Morning came around and Kelly woke up to her alarm blaring in her bedroom. Muttering to herself she wiggled out from under both Abby and Holtzmann, blinking slightly and raising an eyebrow as she tried to figure out how Holtzmann got there as well. Shrugging slightly she headed to her bedroom and slapped her alarm off.

Heading into her kitchen she got herself a bowl of cereal after putting on a pot of coffee and waited for the others to wake up, sitting on her coffee table so she didn’t step on anyone.

Erin was the first one awake, stumbling into the bathroom before going for a cup of coffee. She joined Kelly on the coffee table and they had a quiet discussion over the idea of Kelly communicating with any calm spirits they found since Holtzmann was developing a way to bring the ghosts out of the trap so they could run experiments on them.

Kelly’s presence could render more information out of them.

“Or just cause a bunch of pissy ghosts.” Holtzmann’s voice was followed by her popping up and yawning.

“Both options are possible yes.” Erin sucked on her tongue slightly, looking between Holtzmann and Kelly.

“I’m used to it. Uncle Ailill said I just have this presence that pisses people off.”

“Sounds like an ass.”

“He’s the only one of my uncles who’s unmarried, but he has five kids.”

“Is it hard to keep track of all of your family?”

“Not anymore.” Kelly laughed, rocking slightly. “Besides we all lived within twenty minutes of each other so it wasn’t like I only saw them once a year.”

“Why did you all stay in the same city?”

“Comfort? I’m not sure myself.”

Holtzmann yawned as Erin and Kelly talked, getting up herself to coffee and food. Abby and Patty were apparently heavy sleepers since neither of them had so much as twitched between Kelly waking up and Holtzmann.

“Do you only have cereal?” Erin glanced to the kitchen as Holtzmann was making up her own bowl.

“There’s breakfast foods in there. I just didn’t want to fuss with anything.”

Erin nodded and went to the kitchen herself, a few moments later the sounds of eggs frying up started.

“Mm. Breakfast?” Patty’s voice was a little croaky at the moment as she sat up.

“Erin’s making herself some eggs. I’m sure she’ll make you some as well.” Kelly said, shifting to look over to Patty.

“Sweet.” Patty said as she yawned and went to the bathroom before going into the kitchen to bother Erin for breakfast as well. Abby was still fast asleep and Holtzmann took Erin’s abandoned spot on the coffee table and the two of them chatted about the process of the ‘interrupter’ as Holtzmann was calling it.

Abby finally woke up nearly an hour after everyone else had woken up, Erin having cooked up enough eggs and bacon for her to have breakfast as well.

“So what’s your plan today baby?”

“You’re looking at it. Staying in my pjs and not leaving my house. I had to be a productive adult all week. This is my day of rest.”

Patty laughed softly at that while Abby nodded.

“I’m gonna be staying with Kelly guys, you all can head home.” Abby said, moving to lean against Kelly’s legs as she ate her food.

“Alright love birds. We’ll leave you two alone.” Patty got Erin and Holtzmann up and started pushing them out the door.

Abby finished up her plate and Kelly took the plate and bowl to the kitchen as Abby dragged the blankets and pillows to the laundry room.

“So are we going back to bed to be lazy?”

“Hell yeah.”


	21. Picture Box

Abby and Kelly spent the rest of the morning in Kelly’s bed, curled up together and talking softly. Kelly slipped into a nap as Abby stroked her fingers through her hair, yawning into her neck. Sometime after she was woken up to a crashing sound and Abby cursing. Sitting upright she blinked to try and clear her eyes, raising an eyebrow at the other. Abby was on her butt and surrounded by photos that Kelly hadn’t gotten rid of.

“Snooping?” She laughed, laying back down on her bed and watching Abby pick up the photos and stuff them back into the box.

“I uh…saw the box and got curious. It’s marked ‘Burn!’ so….”

“Yeah. I keep forgetting to.”

“Why do you have them?”

“When I first started packing up I figured I may want to keep in contact with my family after I moved here. I kept the pictures so I’d have something to talk to them about.”

“Mm…what’s this?” As Abby held up one of the photos Kelly had to move down the bed to look at it.

“My sixth Halloween. I went as a kitty.”

“And the ‘Happy Birthday’ balloon?”

“I was born on Halloween.”

“…” Abby sighed and looked and her “And you wonder why you’re haunted.”

“Hey!”

“Irish and Scottish, seventh child of a seventh child and born on Halloween? You’re lucky you’re just haunted and not something worse.”

Kelly laughed softly, shaking her head. “Alright I’ll give you that.”

“What else is in here?” Abby went back to the box, pulling the pictures back out.

“Should just be a bunch of pictures of Halloweens or family affairs. I didn’t take any photos from high school. There might be a few from my forced family vacations that my therapists would make us take.”

“Like this one?” Abby held up a photo that showed Kelly as a child, no older than the last photo, throwing a fit. She was being held by her father in a bridal carry and her face was red from screaming. Her mother had taken the photo to shame her later.

“I hated Gettysburg. But every year I had to go there. That year I threw a fit and embarrassed my family. We never went back after that.”

“They took a child complaining of seeing ghosts to one of the probably most haunted graveyards?”

“Yep.”

“Damn.” Abby searched through the other photos before pulling out another one. “Aw you look so pissed off.”

Kelly frowned and leaned over, face going pale at the picture. It was her in her senior prom dress. Her hair, which at the time had been down to her elbows, was bound tied into a braid and had a ribbon laced through it. The dress was navy blue and a simple sheath dress and from Kelly’s memories it had been too small and kept riding up.

Abby was right. In the photo Kelly looked ready to kill someone.

“Oh dear gods I thought I tore that photo up.” Kelly said, reaching out to snatch the photo. Abby jerked her arm back and raised her eyebrow at her.

“I didn’t figure you for the prom type.”

“I wasn’t. However I made a deal with my mom that if I went to prom I _wouldn’t_ have to walk at my graduation.”

“She took that deal?”

“If it meant less chances of people associating me with my better cousins she’d take anything.”

“If she took the deal why do you look so pissed?”

Kelly sighed and shifted to lay on the bed again instead of leaning up over Abby. “Because I had planned to ditch the prom and apparently she realized that. I was basically handcuffed to one of the cousins who was in my grade for the night. I mean she held up her end of the deal, but I was still pissed.”

Abby hummed softly and reached up and twisted some of Kelly’s curls around her fingers. “Why did you want to skip graduation?”

“Tradition for my family was graduation morning was spent out with the entire family getting a massive breakfast and a new haircut for the graduating students. After that lunch and a shopping trip. Since I wasn’t going to do the walk I was told not to come with them that morning.”

“I have a feeling you had some plan for that.”

“When they got home I was completely gone. Throughout that year I had been packing up my stuff. On graduation day I packed up the last of it and took off. I had rented a car, packed it with the rest of my stuff and drove myself to New York.”

“….School wouldn’t have been in session when you came up?”

“Nope. Spent the months until opening at a homeless shelter. Got a low paying job at a fast food place to save up money and had to do a late application for dorms.”

“Oh honey.” Abby was on her knees and leaning over her, hugging Kelly gently.

“I’m cool. It was a while ago.”

“Still.” Abby sighed and nuzzled her cheek. “I don’t like the idea of you being in a place like that.”

“It wasn’t so bad. The women were nice and one of them even cut my hair for me so I wouldn’t have to keep struggling to brush it out. It was my own fault for not saving more money. Could’ve saved enough to get an apartment, but I didn’t.”

Abby sighed softly and kissed her cheek. “So how’d you keep the photos?”

“I didn’t get the rest of my stuff until I got to the dorm. The stuff I had brought up with me was kept out of storage purposefully so I could sell them for cash. I might not have saved up a lot of money but I had a plan.”

“Mm. My smart honey.” Another kiss to her cheek as Kelly grumbled before Abby pulled away to go looking through the photo box again. A couple pictures were tossed aside as not interesting enough to question. The next one showed Kelly as a child sitting in the lap of an older woman.

“That’s Gram. It was right before she went to the nursing home.”

“She looks like…well a very very older you.”

Kelly laughed softly and dug through the box, finding an old photo. “Here’s her when she was my age.”

“Okay she looks just like you.”

“Yep.”

Kelly had been told since childhood that she looked like her grandmother, but it had taken seeing the photo herself to honestly believe them. Her gram’s hair was curlier than Kelly’s was, but beyond that the two of them were nearly identical.

Abby went back to the box and shifted through the photos again. “You kept a lot of them.”

“Mm. I need to get rid of it.”

“Well not all of them. Like keeping your gram’s photos wouldn’t hurt.”

“Maybe.” Kelly sighed and looked down at the box. There were a lot of photos in the box that were tied to a lot of bad memories. But there were some that she would miss if she got rid of. “I should shift through it and see what’s there. I just stuck it in the closet and didn’t look at it again.”

“I’ll help.”

It took two hours to get through the box, Abby stopping every so often to ask about a photo. In the end she kept a handful of pictures, most focusing on her and her grandparents but there were a few of her and Scott. The rest were put back into the box and Kelly lugged the box to the dumpster.

“One…two…three.” At Abby’s prompt Kelly dumped the box into the dumpster. “And there. Completely out of your life since I doubt you’re willing to go dumpster diving after them.”

“Not unless Holtzmann’s here to give me a boost.” Kelly laughed, coming over to Abby and kissing her softly. “Thanks.”

“No worries.” Abby kissed her back, arms wrapping around her waist. “Come on, let’s go get some lunch.”

“Mm.” Following Abby back into her apartment again she sighed and rolled her shoulders. “I feel a lot better now that it’s out of my life.”

“Of course you do. Anymore shit from your past I need to help you toss?”

“Just the fact I never blocked my parent’s numbers.”

“Why?”

“They leave voice messages and I check those to make sure Scott isn’t dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the massive twitch in updates. I've been feeling like hell the last two days and my body finally took over and held me hostage in sleep and even when I was awake it was a struggle to write. Hopefully I can get the next chapters out on time.


	22. Creeps and Tears

“Excuse me ma’am?” Kelly looked up from where she had been checking orders to face an older man leaning on his cane.

“Yes sir what can I help you with?”

“I was wondering if my painting was hung up?”

“Of course sir let me check.” Kelly pulled up the catalog and opened the search. “What’s the name of the piece?”

“ _Underlined Sadness_.” Kelly’s fingers froze.

“I can tell you for certain the painting is hung up sir. I helped with it myself.”

“Ah! Wonderful. May I see it?”

“Of course sir.”

Standing up from her desk she motioned for him to follow her. As they walked together Kelly noted a weird tingly sensation whenever their arms brushed. Stepping away as subtly as she could Kelly entered the room where they had hung up the painting.

“Here it is sir. If you have any questions, please feel free to come by the desk again.” Thanking the fact she didn’t click as she walked Kelly hurried back to her desk. There was something unsettling about the man despite the fact he hadn’t done anything.

“Excuse me ma’am.” Looking back up she noted he looked a little unsettled.

“Was something wrong sir?”

“No no! Everything was…fine.” His jaw was clenching slightly. “I was wondering if there was a way to submit more paintings?”

“Oh! Yes…here are the forms.” Kelly wasn’t allowed to deny them the forms if they asked. “You can turn them in at anytime after you finish filling them out. May I have a name so I can inform the owner of your interest?”

“Of course, Monroe Drummond. Thank you.” He shuffled away and Kelly shivered slightly, wondering why she was so freaked out by him. As soon as he was completely out of sight she went to Desmond’s office.

“Okay so the painter of _Underlined Sadness_ was just here.”

“What? I’ve been looking and found nothing of them!”

“Yeah, older dude. Probably around the same age as my Gram when she died. Really creepy.”

“How?”

“Just…gave me the shivers. I don’t know. He didn’t say anything to indicate that he had done something with the ghost, but he seemed pissed when he came out after looking at it.”

“Hmmm. What else did he want?”

“He took some forms to submit more paintings.”

“What name did he give?”

“Monroe Drummond.”

“I’ll keep my eyes out.”

“Good.”

Going back to her desk Kelly paused and headed to the painting again, making sure nothing had been done to it. It still hung there and it didn’t look like he had done anything to it.

“What was with him?” She asked the painting, running a finger along the frame to see if anything sparked. It remained unchanged and she felt nothing from it. “Hm. Maybe Holtz has figured a way of keeping you from attacking me.”

Sighing softly she went to sit down at her desk, rubbing her forehead. It was probably just her being wigged out that he had been the one to paint something that attacked her.

At closing time she gathered her items up and headed to the firehouse, sighing over the unlocked door again.

“One of these days I’m going to come in and have to hurt someone because they decided to steal from you.” She said as she entered the main lab.

“There’s a crowbar by the front door to use.”

“Not helping Holtz.”

Holtzmann laughed softly, popping up from her work desk. “What’s cooking?”

“That’s what I should be asking you. Any news on being able to talk to the latest spirit?”

“Didn’t think you’d be interested in that stuff.”

“Something came up at work that made me think of it.”

“Well it’s uh…not coming along. Seems that getting them to manifest without a power source that _isn’t_ strong enough to allow them to physically interact with us like they do you is difficult.”

“Hm. You’ll figure it out.”

“Yeah I will.”

Laughing softly Kelly moved past Holtzmann’s table over to the whiteboard where Abby was staring at with her pen tapping against her lips. “Problem?”

“This doesn’t want to solve itself.”

“I don’t think it’s supposed to Abby.” Kelly laughed, moving behind her girlfriend and wrapping her arms around her. “Talk through it. I won’t understand a word of it but it might help.”

“It’s to help Holtz but I can’t get the math right. You’d think it’d be a simple problem but at every turn it’s frustrating me.”

“See, I understand those words which means you’re not talking through the problem.”

Abby laughed softly while Kelly reached forward and erased one of the numbers before taking the pen from Abby and putting in a different number. “And there, now I’ve ruined it.”

“Nah, it’s an easy change.”

“Should I change more numbers?”

“No no no.” Abby took the pen away from Kelly and capped it. “Come on girly, you must be tired.”

“Eh.”

“Don’t ‘eh’ me.” Abby pressed back into her for a moment before pulling away. “Come on Kel. Time to get some rest.”

“If I ‘eh’ again am I gonna be in trouble?”

“Yes.”

“Hmph.” Yawning softly Kelly followed after Abby. “If I gotta sleep so do you Holtz.”

“Boo!”

Abby laughed as she walked Kelly to the hearse, getting in and driving her back to her apartment. “I can’t stay the night Kel. Meeting with the Mayor again.”

“Bleh. I’ll bring Chinese food after classes then.”

“Spoiling me.”

“Yes I do.” Kelly leaned over and gave Abby a deep kiss before opening her door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Have a good night babe.”

Kelly waited until she couldn’t see the hearse anymore before she headed inside. “Yo Rick, anything happen?”

“Just the usual here Kelly. If anything interesting happened it was somewhere else.”

“Poor thing, so boring.”

“Oh shush you.”

Kelly laughed softly and collected her mail from the box, flipping through the usual junk mail and tossing it aside. At the bottom of the pile was a letter with Scott’s handwriting on it. Raising an eyebrow she tossed the junk mail away and headed to her apartment, opening the letter as she entered it.

It wasn’t from Scott.

Apparently he forwarded a letter to her from Gram, one she must’ve written before she died. Gram had joked that she had ways of speaking to them from behind the grave but Kelly had figured she would just appear in her room.

Sitting on the couch she read it over, tears dotting the paper as she realized it had been written in the final years of her life. Gram hadn’t fully believed in the ghosts, but she had apparently guessed Kelly had plans. The letter detailed a bank account that had money in it saved for her.

And a promise that no matter what she was doing Gram was proud of her.


	23. Haunted Dreams

Kelly checked the accepted turn in forms a few times over the next few days, making sure the ones from the man from before hadn’t come through. She trusted Desmond, but she wanted to check for herself. As she was finishing up flipping through the forms Desmond walked in waving another.

“Your friend came back in.”

Kelly was about to tell him to shred it before she paused, a lightbulb going off in her head. “Did he attach a picture?”

“Yeah.” Desmond handed the form over. “It’s another blue painting.”

As she stared at the painting Kelly felt her fingers twitch slightly. It had the same creepy tone the other had. “Approve it.”

“What?! Quinn the last painting almost killed you.”

“Approve it, but don’t unbox it or however he plans on sending it in. Just leave it. I’ll have one of the busters come pick it up.”

“Oh…yeah that makes sense. Good idea Quinn”

“If it works it’s a good idea.”

It took another two days for the painting arrived and when it did Holtzmann arrived with a pair of rubber gloves for Kelly.

“Come on girl, let’s get this thing packed.”

Pulling on the gloves Kelly helped moved the painting to the hearse, twitching every so often not liking the weight of it. Once it was in the hearse she shook off her hands again.

“Did you zap it?”

“Nah, just not liking being so close to it.”

“Right. I’m gonna get this baby to the station and start running some tests.”

“Be safe Holtz. I don’t like that thing.”

“No worries.”

Kelly watched Holtzmann drive off before she headed back into the gallery, going to Desmond’s office. “The painting’s on its way to be tested. Hopefully they’ll come back with answers.”

“That’s good at least. You didn’t touch it again?”

“No we were careful.”

“Good.” Desmond sighed and she noted he looked older than his thirty years for a moment. “Ghosts attached to paintings. What’s the world coming to?”

“Madness, chaos, the end times?”

“Not funny Quinn.”

“Is to me. This shit is my life. Why wouldn’t paintings attack me?”

“This isn’t my life. I’m used to ghosts being in the stories. Or the gentle interaction of my grandmother.”

“She says you need to listen to those more.”

Desmond paused, noticing Kelly’s eyes were pinned above his shoulder. “She’s…here?”

“Sometimes. We don’t talk much.”

Desmond’s hand clenched for a moment before he relaxed. “Good. I miss her.”

“She knows. She also says if you don’t ask that man to marry you she’ll possess a switch.” Kelly paused, frowning before focusing on Desmond. “I don’t think she means a light switch.”

“She doesn’t.” It was the first time since the painting attack that she heard him laugh. “Thanks Quinn.”

“No worries Dessy. Get some rest tonight.”

“You too girl.”

Kelly left the office and headed to her desk to do the finishing work. At closing she gathered her items before pulling her cell out.

_‘Safe to visit?’_

_‘Best not. I think Holtz is trying to set the painting on fire’_

_‘Angry ghosts. Better not to be the battery.’_

_‘I’ll see you tomorrow Kel.'_

_‘Night love.’_

Tucking her cell away Kelly went to catch her bus, yawning as she headed to her apartment. It was mostly junk mail in her box again, plus some bills. Throwing the junk away she set the bills on her table she groaned softly as she peeled her heels off. Irusan and Kellas were purring on the couch, both reaching up to bat at the wisp that suddenly appeared in front of them.

“Be nice you two.” She laughed, holding her hand out to the other wisps. They bobbed around her fingers, almost petting themselves on them. “At least you all don’t want to kill me.”

There was a slight tremor in the areas they touched, mostly coming from the wisps themselves. “Don’t worry, it takes a lot to kill me.”

That seemed to relax them and they slowly bobbed away. Yawning again Kelly went to her bedroom and started changing for bed, fingers digging through her hair to try and loosen curls that got stuck together. Standing in her bedroom she sighed and popped her neck, feeling out of sorts since she hadn’t gone to the firehouse.

Her phone buzzed angrily and she went for it, fingers still in her hair.

_‘Holtz set it on fire. Nothing happened.’_

_‘Creepy.’_

_‘Yeah. She’s trying to figure out a way to interact with the ghost without it leaving the painting.’_

_‘By pissing it off?’_

_‘That’s the thing. It didn’t react.’_

Kelly say down, frowning at her phone. _‘That doesn’t make sense. I barely poked it and it came to life.’_

_‘You’re you.’_

_‘Fair enough.’_

After a few more moments of conversation the two said goodnight and Kelly tossed her phone onto her night table. Climbing into bed in the nude she sighed softly, grunting as her cats jumped on her.

“Mommy’s life is weird you two.” Her only answer was purrs from them as they made themselves comfortable on her.

The wisps followed her into the room, gliding to rest on areas around her room. Yawning Kelly sighed and curled up into bed.

Usually Kelly slept without dreams, probably a result of whatever caused her to manifest spirits. But her nights usually passed in silence.

Tonight seemed an exception.

The dream started in an empty beach, the ocean pulled back far enough it seemed to disappear.

There was no sound expect the heartbeat in her ears.

It was bitterly cold against her naked skin, but she couldn’t move her arms to cover herself.

The sky was completely grey and she couldn’t see the outline of the sun or moon.

She could hardly breath, and every one she could take felt like a dagger.

When the sound of sand shifting under someone’s feet started Kelly felt her heart stopping in her chest. She half turned to see who it was, but the area behind her was black.

More footsteps, this time from the front. Turning again she saw nothing but the receded ocean.

The same for when the sound came from her left and right sides, nothing appeared.

Suddenly the sound was in front of her again, along with breathing against her throat.

She didn’t turn to face it, taking another dagger like breath as she waited for whatever it was to make its next move.

Nothing happened for a few tense moments before she finally turned to face it.

The moment she did her eyes snapped open in the real world and she took a deep shudder breath. Moving to sit up she wiped at her face, suddenly wondering why people praised their dreams.

An angry buzzing brought her attention to her phone and she sighed, wondering who the hell was texting her this late at night. Picking it up she raised an eyebrow at the ‘Unknown Sender’ listed. Opening the messages she felt her heart stop again.

_‘Hello Quinn. What happened to my painting?’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, I am evil


	24. Answers and no answers

Kelly didn’t bother responding to the text, throwing her cell phone away from her and scrambling out of her bed. The wisps were still bobbing about and nothing seemed out of place. Irusan and Kellas were awake and seemed to sense her anxiety, sniffing around the air and prowling lowly. Huffing slightly Kelly quickly got dressed, picking up her phone with a grimace. Tossing it into her bag she felt a rage over taking her.

She didn’t like being messed with.

Tugging her shoes on she decided to go to the one person who might have some answers. The buses were running this late so it was going to be a walk, but in her rage she was sure she would make it. Locking the door behind her she headed out.

The air was fairly warm despite the time of night and she switched from her walking into a jog. Soon enough it came out into a run. The world buzzed by her as she raced to the fire station, glad it was late and no one was around to see her running like mad through the streets.  
Taking a corner hard she almost tumbled to the ground, getting her feet back under her she huffed and went back to running.

At the fire station she opened the door, glad that they never kept it locked at the moment. The sound of a welding torch alerted her to Holtzmann being awake.

“Holtz. Get your pack.” Her voice was strained as she spoke, panting slightly.

“Kel? What the hell’s wrong?” Holtzmann untangled herself from her welding to come over as Kelly leaned forward as she panted.

“Get your pack. I’m going to talk to it.” She pointed at the painting which was still done over in blue.

“Not good idea! Kel the last one nearly kicked your ass and if you get hurt Abby will skin me!”

“That fucker has my number Holtz! I want to know what the hell is going on and that’s the only thing with any answers.”

“What?”

Kelly dug out her phone and handed it over, watching Holtzmann’s eyes narrow before she went to her pack. Letting her strap herself in and start it up Kelly walked over to the painting.

“Ready Kel?”

“Should be asking you that.”

“Ready…set…go.”

At the command Kelly gripped the frame of the painting, feeling the same zig from before tear up her arm. Stepping away she shook her arm out, a sticky feeling left from touching it.

The blue oozed out of the painting and formed a puddle under it before forming back into a human shape. This one was a young man who wore a nautical uniform and a look of confusion on his face.

“Where am I?”

“Who are you?” Kelly’s voice was sharp as she drew attention to herself.

“Mark Pierce, Skipper on the ship _Aldenham_.”

“What year is it?”

“1823 ma’am.”

“Wrong Skipper. Welcome to the year 2016.” Kelly watched him closing, checking his face for any sign of a lie.

“What? It can’t be! I remember…I remember being fired upon by another ship. I died that day didn’t I?”

“I would guess so Skipper.” He looked so saddened by the news and Kelly wondered if she was being too harsh on him. “I need answer Mark. And you’re the only person I can think who knows them.”

“I will try to answer the best I can ma’am!” He snapped to attention and nodded.

“Do you know why you’re here? In front of me?”

“The last thing I remember is the other ship ma’am. And then being here.”

“Nothing else? No man’s voice. No pull?”

“A slight pull ma’am, but I would think that was whatever killed me.”

Kelly gritted her teeth slightly before sighing. “So you know nothing?”

“Nothing ma’am. I wish I had answers for you.”

“Don’t worry Skipper.”

Mark saluted her and she noticed him fading away. After a few moments he was gone, leaving the painting of a ship behind.

“So…that wasn’t violent.” Kelly heard Holtzmann turning the proton pack off and unhook herself from it.

“And a complete waste of time! He knew nothing!”

“Deep breaths Kel. You did get something.”

Kelly whipped around to look at Holtzmann with a raised eyebrow.

“Look this painting isn’t of a person but a ship. Mark said he was the skipper of a ship yeah? Maybe that was the ship he was on.”

“He said he died when it was being fired on. The woman…Desmond had her clothing and the painting itself dated. She was dressed in 18th century clothing. With her reaction to me it’s possible she was an English woman killed during an Irish revolt.”

“So the ghosts are getting tied to paintings of how they died or of themselves. Are they old paintings?”

“No. The date for the paints were modern. In the last decade or so.”

“So defiantly our friend.”

“But why, and more so how?”

“Don’t know.” Holtzmann went over to the painting and ran her meter over it getting the reading from it. “No activity anymore. Last time when I was checking it was going nuts.”

Kelly sighed and sat down, putting her head in her hands. “I thought he would have answers. Maybe tell me ‘Oh yeah that bastard locked me into this painting and told me he was doing it to take over the world’!”

“Never that easy.”

“No.”

Holtzmann came over and rubbed her back slightly. “Go on upstairs and take one of the beds Kel.”

“Yeah. Don’t feel like walking back to the apartment. You gonna lock the door?”

“Yeah yeah.” Holtzmann laughed as Kelly headed upstairs with a yawn.

Kicking off her shoes as she climbed onto the bed she and Abby had used before. Curling under the blankets Kelly slipped off to sleep, mentally hoping she didn’t get another nightmare.

Waking up she noticed a weight on her and she turned as best she could, seeing Abby laying on the bed and messing with her phone.

“Holtz texted me saying you were here.”

“It’s your day off.”

Abby rolled and curled into her, pressing her face between her shoulder blades as Kelly laid her head back onto her pillow. “She told me about last night. That was a dumb idea.”

“Holtz had her pack and I wasn’t in her line of fire.”

“We also haven’t tested if you can be hurt by the proton packs. If she had fired you could’ve been fried.”

“I was freaked.”

“I know. Still a stupid move.”

“Yeah, didn’t learn anything.”

Abby sighed softly and shifted her arms around her so she was tugged close. “You know that’s not true. You learned somethings.”

“Wish I had learned more.”

“Shush. Go back to sleep.”

Kelly yawned and listened, falling back to sleep in Abby’s arms. The next time she woke it was later in the afternoon. Sitting up she yawned and pulled her shoes on as she headed downstairs.

“Morning baby. You feeling better?”

“Now that’s I’ve slept yeah.”

“So what are we going to do with the painting?” Patty was standing in front of it, frowning slightly.

“Well it’s not a threat anymore so I’ll ask Desmond if he wants to hang it. It’s a beautiful work.”

“Wish the guy making them wasn’t evil.”


	25. My Luck

Desmond agreed that the painting was beautiful, but he still sent it to get dated and checked over. He wanted all the details on the painting, but they wouldn’t be able to get them so he wanted what he could get. She told him about her experience with the second ghost and he made tutting sounds, agreeing with Abby that it had been a risky move to do that. She just sighed softly at that and nodded.

It took a week to get the painting back and when they did she hung it up in the same room as the first, once more checking both paintings to be sure that there was nothing lingering there.   
Heading to her desk she paused, looking at the forms for paintings. The number on them was for the main office, not her cell like she had been assuming. Clicking her tongue she huffed and tried to figure out how he had gotten her number. Desmond would never have given her number and even if he learned her full name Kelly never put her number out in public.

After work she headed to the fire house again, hopping up the stairs before throwing her bag onto a chair. “So the painting is hung up.” She said to Abby.

“Anything sparking from it?”

“Nope both paintings are still dead.”

“Well that’s that at least.”

Kelly came over to Abby and kissed her cheek, looking at the whiteboard. “Still working on it?”

“My brain is melting out of my ears.”

“Mm.” Kelly leaned away and looked at Abby’s. “Nope. It’s still in there.”

“Funny.”

“I think I am.”

Abby laughed softly, turning to her. “What’s up Kel?”

“Mm. Came to see you before I headed to my apartment.”

“I think I’m done with this so I’ll come with you.”

Abby went to get her stuff together while Kelly grabbed her bag as well. At her apartment Abby spread out on the living room table to work on the same formula she had on the whiteboard.

“Did you really copy it down?”

“I figured a change of scenery would help figure the problem out.”

“Mm. I’ll put coffee on.” Kelly went to the kitchen and put on a pot while she heard Abby’s pen scratching across her paper. Her cats came in after her, meowing and twisting around her legs for treats. “Beggar princes. Hold on.”

A can of wet cat food was split between the two and they purred loud enough to be heard in the living room as Kelly brought a cup of coffee to Abby.

“Thanks Kel.” Abby kissed her cheek.

“I’m going to change.” Kelly yawned softly and headed to the bedroom, stretching and popping her joints. The wisps were bouncing around and followed her out after she change into shorts and a tank top.

“Friends of yours?” Two of the wisps had floated in front of Abby as Kelly went to get herself a cup of coffee.

“Kinda. Wisps don’t bother me so when I realized they were the only things here I didn’t feel weird about moving in.” Kelly took a seat next to Abby as all three bounced around them. “These ones just bounce around and follow me.”

“Anything interesting about them?”

“The cats can interact with them. Irusan likes to chase them.”

“Weird. I didn’t think anyone but you could interact with them.”

“They’re cats. Cats are exempt from logic.”

Abby laughed at that, shaking her head. “Alright you got me there.”

At his name Irusan came into the living room, jumping on top of one of the wisps who passed through him.

“They also do that. The cats chase them or pat at them but I’m still the only one who can touch them.” Reaching out she grabbed the wisp Irusan had tried to jump on.

“They must get jealous.”

“Nah.” Letting the wisp go Irusan chased it again, running around as the other two wisps got in on the game and started to mess with him. Kellas came barreling out a moment later to play with them as well.

“See? All of them love it.”

Abby watched the game between wisps as cats with a raised eyebrow. “They really are silly creatures.”

“I watched the wisps a lot as a kid and it made me think that they were animals. They never reacted like human spirits.”

“How so?”

“This. The games. The bouncing. Even with me they act like that.”

“Huh.”

Yawning softly Kelly shifted, leaning more into her couch with a stretch. “You gonna work through the night?”

“Probably. I’ll join you in bed once I’m tired enough.”

“Mm.” Kelly leaned forward and kissed Abby’s cheek softly. “Don’t stay up to late Abby. The problem won’t solve itself just by you not sleeping.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do.” A teasing smile crossed her lips before she kissed Abby’s cheek again. “Be good.”  
“Meh.”

Kelly laughed and headed to her bedroom, crawling under the covers and falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Abby crawling into the bed with her woke her up. Groaning Kelly looked at the clock.

“Babe I said get some sleep, not stay up till almost dawn.”

“I’ve hit a massive road block on it.”

“I told you it wouldn’t solve.”

“Shush you.”

“Never. Go to sleep.”

“You getting up?”

“Yeah.” Kelly yawned and sat up in bed, popping her neck a few times before she stood up. “We’re going spoken essays today. And with my massively bad luck I’ll be the first one called.”

“My poor bad luck haver.”

Kelly laughed and got dressed, going out to the living room to practice her speech a few times. Irusan and Kellas played the attentive audience for her despite not giving a car what she was talking about. Symbolism of dragonflies and other winged insects in cultures was a boring topic for even her to talk about.

After three practices she felt confident that she could at least get through it without mucking up massively. Pulling her shoes on she went to the bedroom and pressed a kiss to the sleeping Abby’s forehead before she headed out.

Locking the door behind her she jogged down stairs and caught the bus, going over the speech the entire bus ride. At the college she hopped off and headed to her classes, the one she had the speech in wasn’t until right before lunch.

Two classes went by in a blur, and soon she was sitting in the history class the speech would be in.

“Alright alright, stifle the noise.” Professor Middlebrook was a weird person who called for silence even if the room wasn’t noisy. Kelly looked over at her from where she was sitting on the desk. “It’s speech day so I’ll forgive none of you being in your seats.”

Kelly crossed her fingers under her legs that she wasn’t the first one to be called.

“Alright. Let’s get this started. First speech today will be…Miss Kelly Quinn!”

“Damn.” Hissing through her teeth Kelly hopped off of the desk and headed to the front of the room.

“Luck of the draw Quinn.”

“No, just my luck.”

“Well let’s start.”

Kelly took a deep breath and faced the class, giving them an uneasy smile. “Sacrificial lamb for ya’ll. Pay attention.”

That got her a laugh which broke the tension before she launched into her speech.


	26. Secret Talks and Essays

“Alright Kel. Ready?”

“No.”

“Good!”

Kelly glared at Holtzmann as the woman got ready to open the trap, wiggling bare toes on the ground. Holtzmann had kept the original painting ghost separate from the others to try and find a way to get answers out of her without risking Kelly. Currently that wasn’t coming along so Kelly said to let her out so they could have a conversation.

Which meant she had to stand barefoot on the floor to generate the energy the ghost would need to manifest.

Taking a deep breath she watched as the female ghost reformed and looked around, when the woman’s eyes landed on her Kelly lifted her hand up threateningly while Holtzmann charged her proton pack.

“Don’t. I showed you before I can hurt you.”

“Irish whore.” The ghost spat, glaring at her.

“That hurts. And is a lie my girlfriend would smack you for if she was here.”

Holtzmann cackled, drawing attention to herself. The ghost looked warily at the proton pack, obviously remembering it.

“Good, you realize your position.” Kelly said as the ghost turned back to her.

The ghost glared at her before giving a huff. “What do you want?”

“Answers.”

“To what?”

“What do you know? About how you’re here?”

“Nothing. I was laying in my bed dying and then I was faced with you.” She almost spat her words.

“You were trapped in a portrait. You don’t know anything about the guy who painted it?”

“No. I was dying and then I was here.”

Kelly rolled her tongue in her mouth, sighing. Nodding to Holtzmann she walking away from the ghosts as the other hit her with her proton laser and dragged her back into the trap.

After it shut she sighed again and shook her head. “That was worthless. Again.” The spirits were completely unknowing of what was happening to them.

“Well…okay yeah this time it was worthless. Mean little bitch isn’t she?”

“Eh. I’m used to it.”

Holtzmann shrugged slightly and went to unhook herself from her pack. “You gonna tell Abby what we did?”

“Are you?”

“Nope.”

“Same.”

Kelly and Holtzmann had both agreed that the first ghost being a portrait instead of a painting of a ship may have seen something while trapped in the painting. Apparently they had been wrong and it had just been a waste of time. Sighing softly Kelly went to sit down a moment, rubbing her forehead.

“This is so frustrating! I just want some answers!”

“I know Kel. Deep breaths.”

“I hate not knowing. I spent nearly my entire life not knowing what the hell was going on, and just when I finally start getting answers on that more questions start popping up!”

Holtzmann allowed her to rant, passing over a cup of water as Kelly tugged her shoes back on. “I’m just so tired of not knowing what the hell is going on.”

“I know Kel.”

“Sorry. I’m bitching.”

“Nah, it’s cool. Everyone needs to rant.”

Kelly sighed softly, wrapping one of her curls around her finger. “I feel like I’m in therapy again. No idea what’s going on and staring at the clock waiting for answers.”

“Poetic.”

“I have my moments.”

Holtzmann laughed at that just before Abby came in from office shopping she and Erin had been doing. The woman looked between them with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s so funny?”

“Kelly was talking about one of her many many cousins.”

“Freshman year my cousin Odran, who was a junior at that time, tripped down three sets of stairs on Halloween since he was dressed as a clown and tripped over his big red shoes.”

Abby and Erin laughed softly while Holtzmann gave her a thumbs up. Kelly shrugged, sipping her water. It was a true story and one of many she had involving her cousins or her siblings. Kelly didn’t have a lot of embarrassing stories about herself since she typically avoided people thanks to the ghosts.

“Having a large family means I watched a lot of weird things. I have blackmail on all of them if I ever cared enough to try it.”

Abby came over to Kelly and gave her a kiss to the cheek. “I’m glad you’re not an evil mastermind.”

“I’m not! I’ve got a huge family. You realize how much I could’ve gotten if I decided to turn evil?”

“No evil schemes.”

“Spoilsport.”

“Holtz is more than enough evil.”

“…Okay that’s fair.”

“Hey!”

Both women looked over to Holtzmann, Kelly raising her eyebrow as they waited for her to defend herself.

“I’m just the right amount of evil.” Holtzmann said with a bright smile.

Kelly laughed as Abby shook her head, smiling slightly.

“Okay. Kel don’t you have a paper to be writing?”

Kelly blushed, looking over at her laptop which sat accusingly on a chair in Patty’s library. The word document was still pulled up, cursor blinking at the last sentence she had written. “I got a road block.”

“Mentally?”

“Spiritually. I’ve decided essays are against my religion.”

Abby gave her a raised eyebrow and waved her back to her laptop. “Come on Kel, you gotta finish it.”

“But it’s boring!”

“What is it about this time?”

Kelly sighed as she was forced into her seat, laptop being dropping onto her lap again. “Reasoning why every culture has some dragon story even before they got into contact with each other.”

“And that’s boring?”

“I’ve done this paper a few times. It’s a favorite topic for my cultural history classes and if it wasn’t for the fact I know my professors keep copies of essays I would just reuse one of them. As is I’ve got to try and rewrite the paper so it doesn’t sound like one I did before.”

“Ah.” Abby kissed her forehead and shook her head. “You’ll get it done.”

“I will. After many whines and attempts to sneak away from the paper.”

“I’ll be right there to make sure you don’t get too far from the paper.”

Grumbling softly Kelly sank into the chair, fingers typing on the keyboard against as she went back to work. She was only on page one of five so she had a while to go.

After an hour she sat up and yawned, popping her back. “Okay now I’ve got a legitimate excuse to stop. I gotta get ready for work.”

“Alright Kel. Want me to drive you home?” Abby looked up from where she and Erin were working on the formula again.

“If you want.”

“Yeah, I need to get away from this problem.”

“How come I can’t run away from my work?”

“Because I’ve already graduated.”

Kelly paused and then started grumbling as she packed her stuff. She didn’t have an argument for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slowly getting my chapters done. This is gonna result in no chapters tomorrow morning like I usually aim for

**Author's Note:**

> Yep, another one....why? Because I love these characters and love writing them.


End file.
